


tragedy, but make it greek

by skai_heda



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The 100 (TV)
Genre: 12 year old bellamy is pretty chill, Aged Down Characters, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Minor Angst, Minor John Murphy/Raven Reyes, Pining Bellamy Blake, kind of a slow burn??, minor echo/roan, tiny bits of canon divergence from pjo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24622384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skai_heda/pseuds/skai_heda
Summary: War is inevitable. Bellamy was at least hoping to pass sixth grade before getting fully invested in one.(bellamy, clarke, and the Second Titan War.)
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Bellamy Blake & Percy Jackson, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 39





	1. the stolen bolt

The horned demon in the fire escape was a little bit of a surprise.

"Don't move," Bellamy says to his little sister. 

"No shit," she answers. 

"Don't say shit, Octavia, you're ten."

"Don't say shit, Bellamy, you're twelve."

He doesn't look at her, give her his signature eye-roll. He keeps his eyes trained on the hissing creature in the window of the main room of their tiny apartment.

"Just relax," he says finally, stepping back very slowly. "Breathe."

"That's a Chimera, Bell," Octavia snaps.

He looks at her. "How did you know?"

"Because you're a goddamn nerd."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Run, maybe."

"Great idea," Bellamy replies, and they do.

* * *

**four days later**

"He's up!"

Bellamy feels like shit. Like absolute shit. There's a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes leaning over him, frowning slightly.

"Oh, hey," he says. "What the hell happened?"

"You kind of got mauled by a Chimera," the girl says, leaning back. He glances down and sees that he's wearing an orange t-shirt, with words that he just can't decipher.

"Dyslexia, right?" the girl says. "Me, too."

He sits bolt-upright. "Where's my sister?" he exclaims, ignoring the vomit that rises to the back of his mouth.

"Clarke," a voice says from a doorway, and there it is; a real freakin' centaur.

"Oh, my god," he says, and then he passes out again.

* * *

"I really wish we'd stop meeting like this," blondie says when he comes to. She's holding a spoon to his mouth.

"You're Clarke, right?" he says, before letting her put the food in his mouth. And dear _god,_ it tastes amazing, like a mixture of everything his mom makes best, yet managing to taste good at the same time.

"That would be me," she says. "Daughter of Athena, at your service."

"Daughter of— _Athena?"_

"Don't confuse him, Clarke," a voice says, and Bellamy sees the centaur again. "Bellamy Blake, it's good to finally see you here safe and sound. Please try to stay awake this time."

"I have to be dreaming," he says.

"You aren't," Clarke says. "This place is real."

"Who are you?" he asks the centaur.

"My name is Chiron, trainer of heroes—"

"—known as the wisest and justest of all the centaurs," Bellamy finishes. "You're— _the_ Chiron?"

"Aye, the very same," Chiron says. "Someone knows their history."

"Greek history and mythology are like, my two favorite things," Bellamy says, but he pulls himself back to reality. "Where the hell is my sister?"

"She's safe, I promise," Clarke says. "Look—the mythology you're talking about? It's real."

"Real."

"Yes."

"The Greek gods are real? And they live in a giant palace in Greece?"

"Not exactly," Chiron says. "The presence of the gods moves with what we call the 'Heart of the West.' Western civilization. That means that they are now located in Mount Olympus, on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building."

 _This guy clearly isn't from New York, then,_ Bellamy thinks, but he keeps that to himself. "So—what's with the whole daughter of Athena thing?"

"The gods, they, ah, they have children with mortals. And we call them half-bloods, or demigods. Half mortal..."

"Half god," Bellamy finishes. "Clarke is Athena's daughter?"

"Yeah," she says.

"Am—am I a demigod?" he asks.

"You must be," Clarke says. "Your dyslexia? Every single kid at this camp has it. It's because our brains are trained to read Ancient Greek. You've got ADHD, right?"

"Yeah," he answers. "My sister and I both have it."

"It preps you for battle, my boy," Chiron explains. "Your ADHD allows you to have an awareness that others don't have. That is what keeps you alive in a fight."

"A _fight?_ Why would I need to fight anyone?"

"Well—those Greek monsters are always looking to wipe out the demigods," Clarke murmurs. 

He observes her expression. "But there's something else."

Chiron looks down. "Clarke, perhaps you should explain. Take him on a walk around camp."

* * *

"Here, let's sit. You're getting tired," Clarke says, tugging on his arm as she settles down on the hill. From here, he can see the whole camp—the cabins built in a U-Shape, the large, sky-blue Big House, the lava rock-climbing wall, a basketball court, a large, open pavilion, and rolling hills of strawberries. The only place demigods will ever be safe, Clarke says.

"So that's why those cabins are empty," Bellamy murmurs. "God. Poor Thalia. She didn't deserve to get turned into a tree for just being alive."

"Zeus broke one of the greatest rules that the Big Three had set for themselves. And so did Poseidon, apparently."

"Poseidon?"

"This kid—Percy Jackson? He came to camp a few weeks ago. He left for a quest yesterday with my sister—half-sister, Annabeth. It's not a good situation, Bellamy. A war is about to start. Zeus thinks Percy stole his master lightning bolt."

"Why, did Percy do something to make him think that?"

"Percy didn't even know he was a demigod until he came to camp. Zeus just thinks so because Percy's the son of his brother. And the children of the gods can be used to topple another god's throne."

"That's so messed up, though!"

"Politics between gods are never clear. Zeus and Poseidon have had one hell of a rivalry for eons. So now, Percy and my sister are on a quest to find it, and they have one week before the gods erupt into a war that'll make World War II look like a water balloon fight."

"That's—not good," Bellamy mumbles, rubbing a blade of green grass in between his fingers. "Uh—Octavia's my half-sister, too. But we've grown up treating each other as real siblings. Is it the same for you?"

"Not always," Clarke says. With most of us, it's more of like, a cousin relationship, you know? Friends who just happen to be related. But Annabeth and I—well, we're similar. We're the same age, too."

"Wouldn't all the other Athena kids be similar, too?"

Clarke rolls her eyes. "Just because we all have the same mother doesn't mean we all have the same personalities."

Bellamy nods. "Noted, Princess," he calls her, because she _does_ look a lot like a princess. "How will I know who my godly parent is?"

"Sometimes kids are left undetermined for a long time. If you're undetermined, you stay in the Hermes cabin, like I was telling you earlier. But usually, they claim you. With a symbol of some sort. Percy was claimed after our last match of Capture The Flag by a glowing green trident hologram over his head."

"Symbol of Poseidon."

"And I was claimed when an owl sat on my shoulder and I was scared that it would shit on me."

Bellamy can't help but laugh at that, but he sobers quickly. "When will I get to see my sister?"

"How about now?"

* * *

They kind of run into her.

"Bell! Hi," Octavia says, looking a lot better than before. "This place is great!"

"Mom's going to boil me alive," he murmurs, causing Clarke to bite her lip. "We should find some way of contacting her, a phone or something—"

"No!" Clarke yells. "I mean, no. If demigods use a phone, it sends a signal to every monster within a 100-mile radius. Trust me, you do not want to ever use a phone, ever. Especially not now that you know that you're demigods. It makes your scent stronger."

"Oh," Bellamy says. "Okay."

"Another punk, huh!" a loud female voice yells, and Bellamy turns to see a girl with stringy hair and a red bandana approach, with mean-looking eyes and an even meaner spear strapped to her back.

"People just walk around with weapons in here?" he asks.

"Ares cabin does," Clarke says, gritting her teeth. "Go away, Clarisse!"

"Well, he's better looking than Jackson," Clarisse says. "Still ugly, though."

"Wow, thanks," Bellamy answers.

"Step away, _Princess,"_ Clarisse says. "The punk has to be initiated."

"How about no?" Bellamy splutters, taking a step back.

"Well, at least I know you aren't an Ares kid," Clarisse snickers. "Ares doesn't sire _cowards."_

 _"Coward?"_ Bellamy asks in disbelief.

"Oh, god," Clarke mutters, putting her hand on her mouth.

Bellamy's not sure how he didn't die in the next second, because next thing he knows, Clarisse's big, fat fist is flying towards his face, and his life is flashing before his eyes.

Except—he doesn't die. Somehow, he's moved faster than his brain can process, and her fist makes contact with the palm of his hand.

_Wow. This ADHD thing really isn't so bad._

"You're going to pay for that, shithead," Clarisse mutters, and Bellamy has a feeling ADHD isn't going to save him this time. But it does, every time Clarisse throws a punch or a kick, and slowly, Bellamy begins to respond, somehow landing a few blows of his own. If this girl is a child of Ares, she must not be that talented.

He must have said that out loud, because Clarisse takes to trying to murder him with renewed rage and vengeance. And Clarke—she just stands there and observes as if she's watching a freaking movie or something.

 _"Katanalóste tis grothiés mou,"_ he mutters, aiming his fist at her face, the words coming out of absolutely nowhere.

"Huh?" Octavia says.

"It means eat my fists in Greek, I think," Clarke mutters. 

His knuckles hit her jaw, and she falls to the ground, clearly defeated. 

"Poor Clarisse," Clarke says, but she sounds positively gleeful. "She got beaten up twice in a month!"

Bellamy turns to see Chiron, and his heart sinks, knowing he's in trouble.

But Chiron does something he doesn't expect—he sinks into what seems to be a bow, and when he turns to Clarke, he sees her doing the same with an amazed expression. Octavia stays standing, but even she looks mesmerized.

"Bellamy Blake, child of war, heart of the battlefield, ruthless and cunning." There's something in Bellamy's hand, now, and he has no idea how it got there. He looks down and sees a spear a lot like the one Clarisse has. "All hail Bellamy Blake, son of Ares."

* * *

The inside of the Ares Cabin is nothing like the outside. It's surprisingly neat, looking a bit like something out of a sci-fi novel. Living here will be like living in a really futuristic armory, really, because there are weapons on every wall, even the ceiling. Well, that has to be a hazard, right? He finds a bunch of tough-looking kids, all glaring at him, observing him critically.

"Well, don't scare him," a girl says. She's tall and slim, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She's extremely pretty, Bellamy notices, and probably a few years older than him. "I'm Echo. I'm the senior camper in this cabin."

"Welcome to the family, Spots," Clarisse mumbles, but she doesn't seem nearly as angry as she was before, even though she's holding ice to her jaw.

"Spots," he says dully.

"Yeah, 'cuz you got 'em all over your face, idiot," she replies.

"They're _freckles."_

"Whew," a pale kid with dark brown hair and a malicious smile says. "Sure you aren't an Aphrodite kid?"

Bellamy rolls his eyes, then turns to Clarisse. "I'm sorry for beating you up."

She scowls, then relaxes. "It's cool, Spots. You didn't do a bad job. But you still need initiation."

"Wasn't _that_ initiation?" he asks.

"Ares Cabin has their own little initiation ceremony," Echo says with a hint of a smile. She really is very pretty. "Murphy, the book."

The pale kid pulls a massive book out of nowhere and tosses it towards Bellamy, who barely catches it. _The Art of War_ by Sun Tzu.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asks.

"Memorize every word," a girl with brown hair and green eyes says.

"M— _what?"_

"Yeah, Lexa did it in a day," Murphy says, pointing to Green-Eyes.

He stares at all of them, frowning. "You're joking."

Murphy cracks first. "Yeah, we are," he admits, taking the book back. "Shoulda seen the look on your face, Bellamy. Anyways, that's not our style. Memorizing this book is definitely something Athena Cabin would do, though.

Bellamy pictures Clarke sitting at a table furiously trying to memorize every word, and he turns a snort into a sneeze. Once he's been blessed by everyone, he turns to Echo, trying to keep his eyes focused on hers. "So what do we do now?"

"Well, we naturally need to decide what weapon you're the best with," Echo says. Now that Bellamy really thinks about it, Echo would fit in perfectly with the Aphrodite kids. 

"I don't want a spear," he blurts, looking down at the object in his other hand. "No offense, Clarisse."

"It's fine," Clarisse replies. "Spears are only for the best of the best."

"Percy Jackson snapped your old one like a twig," Lexa mutters, and Bellamy finds himself really liking this Percy Jackson kid.

"That was—those were _special circumstances,_ Woodley," Clarisse hisses, and Lexa glances at Bellamy, eyebrows raised, as if she's silently asking him, _see what we have to deal with?_

"Look, uh, Clarke promised me a tour of the camp," Bellamy says, stepping back from his bunk. "Maybe later, though."

"Wasn't Clarke giving you a tour when you saw me?" Clarisse asks, eyebrows raised.

"She barely got started," Bellamy lies, and he dashes out the cabin, heading straight for the Big House.

Clarke and Chiron are on the porch, talking softly.

"—bus got blown up in a bridge just on the outskirts of Manhattan," Chiron is saying as he approaches. "Argus doesn't know what happened to them after that. But don't worry, okay? I'm sure they're alive."

"I—hi, Bellamy," Clarke says, noticing him. "What is it?"

"I want to see my sister. She didn't come to Ares Cabin with me."

A hint of discomfort appears on Clarke's face, but Chiron remains calm, if not grim. "Bellamy, your sister wasn't claimed."

He blinks. "She wasn't?"

"We put her in the Hermes Cabin," Chiron continues. 

"Where all the undetermined campers go."

"Yes, but we're not sure whether she should even be here at all. There is a possibility that you are the only child of your mother with the blood of the gods."

"But she has ADHD like everyone else here!" Bellamy protests.

"But not dyslexia, right?" Clarke says.

"It could be a fluke," Chiron murmurs. "It is possible for a demigod to not have dyslexia. Rare, but possible. Either way, though I'm sure you've already figured it out—Octavia isn't a child of Ares."

Bellamy stares at the ground. Obviously he knew that Octavia was only his half-sister, but at the same time he can't process what Chiron had just said. It makes her seem farther away from him—it makes her seem like less of his sister.

"You said something about a bus blowing up in Manhattan," he finally says, because he latches onto other things when he's stressed. "Is it the quest that Percy Jackson went on?"

"The camp is in danger," Chiron says. "I'm sure Clarke said something about the issue between Zeus and Poseidon."

"Yeah."

"Percy has a week to bring the bolt back," Clarke mumbles.

"And what are we supposed to do back here?" Bellamy asks. "Also don't Athena kids have grey eyes?"

"Know anything about Punnett Squares, Bellamy?"

"I'm sure Clarke can explain it to you later," Chiron says hastily. "Right now, Bellamy, we train and we fortify. We prepare Camp Half-Blood for war."

* * *

"Bellamy."

He pulls his borrowed sword out of the stomach of the dummy in front him, turning to face his sister. There are three days until the summer solstice, three days before Percy, Annabeth, and Grover Underwood's deadline. "Hi, O."

"How's Ares Cabin?" she asks, crossing her arms. Her tone is light, but there is discomfort in her eyes.

"It's fine. What's going on?" he asks. 

"Chiron said some kids are never claimed," she tells him. 

"That's not going to happen to you," Bellamy says immediately.

"That's easy for you to say. You were claimed in like, a day!" Octavia responds with a pout.

Bellamy sighs and plays with the hem of his orange camp t-shirt. "Don't worry about it, O, really. Everything's going to be fine."

"I guess," she says. "But I think I'll be pretty sad when I leave Hermes Cabin, if I'm not his kid. I've made friends there."

"Who?" Bellamy immediately asks.

"Well, there's Julia Feingold, Nate Miller, a couple others. The head counselor's nice, too. Luke Castellan."

Bellamy bites his lip. "That's cool."

"Hey," a voice says, and he turns to see Clarke in the large doorway of the training arena. "Chiron wants to see you."

"Okay," says Bellamy. "I'll see you later, Octavia."

He follows Clarke down the hill. 

"How's weapons training?"

"Um..."

"You're good at everything, aren't you? Most Ares kids are really, really good at one weapon, but some of them are good at all of them. I think you're one of them."

"You're giving me too much credit," he mumbles. 

"Yeah, I guess. I always forget to mention that Ares kids are really, really, dumb."

"Hey!" he protests, elbowing her in the ribs. "That's rude."

"If you say so. But Athena isn't the goddess of _strategic war_ for nothing."

"Do you ever talk to her? Your mom?"

Clarke's expression turns sour. "Our parents don't do anything beyond letting us know that we're their kids. There are laws that forbid them from seeing us, according to Chiron but... sometimes you need it, you know? The comfort of knowing that they're proud of you. But all they do is conceive us and disappear for the rest of our lives unless they find some absurd reason to punish us."

Up above, thunder rolls across the sky, even though there isn't a cloud in sight.

Clarke looks up and rolls her eyes. They walk along for a bit in silence. Clarke's also 12, like him, but something about her makes her seem a lot older. Maybe because she's wicked smart.

"Tell me about the Hermes kids," he says.

"Why?"

"My sister is becoming friends with them," Bellamy tells her.

"You're really protective of her, aren't you? She's ten, Bellamy. She's not a baby."

Bellamy frowns. "Please?"

Clarke huffs. "As far as I know, you can't trust the Hermes kids. There are a few people who are good friends of mine, though, like Nate Miller and the Stoll brothers. They've got the main qualities of Hermes kids, I guess. But they're nice. Most of them just like putting porcupine quills in the bunks of other campers."

"And the head counselor? Luke?"

"Luke?" Clarke asks, and Bellamy watches her face darken. "I don't know. He's alright, I guess."

"You guess?"

Clarke puts her hands in the pockets of her shorts. "Luke seems to be a really nice person for the sake of his role as a head counselor. But he's pretty angry about a lot of stuff. He's one of the oldest campers here, like nineteen. He seems like a guy you can like and trust, but—"

"You don't trust him."

She rubs her temples. "Annabeth really likes him. They've known each other since she was seven. She thinks Luke could never do anything wrong."

"I—"

"Bellamy," Chiron says, and he realizes that he's standing on the porch of the Big House. He's been so invested in his conversation with Clarke that he completely forgot that he was coming over here. "I would like you to meet Mr. D."

A pudgy man sits at a table with cards laid out and a can of Diet Coke beside him, glaring at Bellamy. 

"Hello," Bellamy mutters.

"You can skip the introduction, Bilbo," Mr. D says irritably, shuffling the cards. "I'd rather skip this whole experience, but apparently I'm supposed to greet all the brats who come here. So hello."

"My name's Bellamy."

"Oh, so you're brainless like that other one, Peter—"

"Percy," Clarke mumbles.

"—Peter Johnson, that's right. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, yadda, yadda, yadda. This has made me tired." Mr D reaches for the Diet Coke can and stares at it. "Some sauvignon blanc, if you will."

The can disappears, replaced with a wineglass with golden liquid within. 

"Mr. D," Chiron mumbles. "You've forgotten your restrictions again."

"Have I," he replies dryly, and the glass morphs back into a coke can. He looks up. "Apologies, father!"

Again, the thunder booms.

"Father?" Bellamy repeats dully.

"Yes, Zeus," Mr. D says impatiently. "You're almost as stupid as Poseidon's brat, Brock Barton!"

"Bellamy Blake."

"Semantics," he says, waving his hand.

"You're Dionysus," Bellamy realizes. "The wine guy? You're a god, why are you here?"

"Punishment," he says simply. 

"Wonderful," Chiron says. "Bellamy, would you step inside with me for a moment?"

* * *

Chiron looks between Bellamy and Clarke. "We have to consider the possibility that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover will not return to camp."

Clarke swallows.

"Old monsters are stirring," Chiron murmurs. "Bellamy, I wish you and your sister could have enjoyed this camp under normal circumstances. But a great war between the gods is brewing, and you will need all the help you can get should that ever take place. Clarke, I want you to oversee his training. After the sing-along tonight, there will be a meeting held here for the camp fortification. Every member of the Ares, Athena, and Hephaestus cabins will be present."

"What about my sister?" Bellamy asks.

Chiron stares into the fireplace. "She won't be a part of this. Which is good, Bellamy. She's a very young demigod. It's better to keep her away from all of this."

Bellamy swallows. "Alright. I'll be there."

* * *

"There are weak spots here, here, and here," Raven Reyes, one of the Hephaestus kids, says as she points to a map of the camp. "If the war is officially declared, our first issue will be the monsters. We have to keep them out of camp to have a safe space."

"Couldn't the gods just like, blast the protective wards or something?" Bellamy asks.

"Nope," Lexa says. "When the camp was created, the gods made the wards so powerful that nobody would ever be able to break them, not even the gods. But monsters can still get inside through magical doorways and stuff."

"Well, if they can get in then how are we not a Hydra's personal lunch buffet?" Bellamy pushes.

"Border patrol," Clarisse says. Clarke glares at her. "But border patrol won't mean anything once every single monster in North America comes for this camp."

"My brothers and sisters can start building traps over by those areas," Charles Beckendorf says, putting a hand on Raven's back. 

"Good. Cabin 5," Chiron says, looking at Bellamy and the others. "You are excellent military strategists, but we'll leave this one to Athena. Right now, I need you to start training the other campers. Apollo can oversee archery, but you must make sure that each and every occupant is at least somewhat good at combat."

"In two days?" Echo asks, eyes widening.

"You will be able to manage, I know it."

"And what if Percy does come back?" Malcolm from Athena Cabin asks. 

"Either way, it strengthens the camp. Even if Percy succeeds in the quest, there will always be a bigger threat," Chiron says ominously. "Go to your cabins. War preparation escalates tomorrow at dawn."

* * *

"Are you worried?" Clarke asks him.

"I don't even know," he answers, picking soot off of his arms after doing the rock-climbing wall in full lava mode on a break between training campers. "I've barely been here a week. I feel like I'm in a coma and I'm just gonna wake up and know that none of it was real."

"You have soot on your forehead," she informs him. Bellamy takes care of it, looking at her. Clarke is really pretty, he supposes. 

_No way. You don't have a crush on the Princess._

Yeah, but she's so smart and pretty and badass and—

 _Nope. No. She would never like_ you.

"So do people only stay here during the summer?" he asks.

"Some campers stay year-round. I do, Luke does, Clarisse does, and a few others. We train all year, and we really only have fun during the summer," she says with a small laugh. 

"How long have you been here?" he asks.

"Three years," she answers. "My—my dad died when I was nine. Leaving me with my step-mom, Abby. I mean, I've known her since I was a baby and she's basically my mom, but it was pretty bad after Dad died. I ran away. And when I tried to come back, there were monsters. They chased me through Virginia, until I met a satyr. They're the ones who are usually meant to get a demigod to camp. He got me here, and I've been living here year-round ever since."

"What about your step-mom?"

She swallows. "Overdosed last year. But she’s alive. Either way, things just haven’t been the same since.”

"Oh," Bellamy says, feeling extremely slow and stupid. He reaches out to touch her shoulder. "Uh, I'm really sorry about that, Clarke."

She shrugs. "I have a family here. That's all that matters."

He thinks about his own mom, sitting in their tiny apartment in the Upper East Side, and he sighs, picking up his sword and returning to the arena.

* * *

The summer solstice approaches, and everyone seems to wait with baited breath, looking in the general direction of the main camp entrance, waiting for the others to come back. Apparently, this is the first quest in a really long time.

"Don't worry, Clarke," he says, coming to stand next to her on a hill overlooking the strawberry fields. "Your sister's gonna be okay."

"Right," she says with gritted teeth. "Bellamy, something's wrong."

"What is?" he asks.

"Remember Luke?" she says. "Your sister's friend, head counselor of Hermes—"

"I _know_ who he is," Bellamy says impatiently. "What about him?"

Clarke looks at him and tugs his arm so that they both sit on the hill. "He was talking to someone with an Iris-message yesterday."

"What's an Iris-message?" he asks.

"Iris is the goddess of the rainbow," Clarke explains, her leg bouncing impatiently. "You can use rainbows for like, video messages and stuff. You take a golden drachma, currency of Ancient Greece, throw it into a rainbow, say who you wanna talk to and where they are, and then you talk to them. Last night, I saw Luke talking to—to your dad."

"I don't have— _Ares?"_

"Yeah, him!" Clarke says. "Ares was saying, _the hero has crossed into the Underworld with the gifts."_

"That's not creepy at all," Bellamy says. "But why would Ares tell Luke that?"

"I think—I think Ares was talking about Percy," Clarke tells him, frowning. "The hero."

"The _Underworld?_ That means—"

"Maybe," Clarke interrupts, crossing her arms. "But he might still be alive. We have to hope—"

She's cut off by shouting from below, and they both stand. All the campers are gathered around a few people, and Clarke breaks into a grin. "They're back," she says."

* * *

Celebrations go on for hours, and Bellamy runs smack into another kid.

"Watch it," he mutters, but then he looks up at a kid with black hair and sea-green eyes. "Oh, hi."

"Hi," he says, surveying him wearily. "I'm Percy."

"Bellamy," he replies. "Congratulations on your quest."

"Thanks," Percy replies, rubbing the back of his neck. "Wait—aren't you the new Ares kid who pulverized Clarisse?"

"Yeah. I mean, they're not all bad. Just her and a few others," he replies.

"Well, I know you aren't," Percy replies, grinning. "We're gonna be friends, I think."

Bellamy can't help but agree. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luke.

"What is it?" Percy asks.

"It's Luke. He's being weird," Bellamy replies.

"I guess. Something seems—off."

"Yeah," Bellamy says. "But don't worry about it. This is your night. You enjoy the celebration, bro. I'm going to go find my sister."

"Your sister?" he asks, frowning. "Like another Ares kid or—"

"Unclaimed," Bellamy says, stepping away. "I'll fill you in later."

"Well, see you later, _Bilbo,"_ Percy says, referring to Mr. D's less than enthusiastic announcement of the new demigods to the returned campers.

"Later, _Peter,"_ Bellamy replies with a smirk, before leaving to find his sister.

* * *

In the end, he decides to stay. Year-round, he says to Chiron. _I want to be here._

And no, this has nothing to do with the fact that Clarke also stays year-round. Who would ever say such a thing?

"I'm glad you're staying, Bellamy," Chiron says. "I hope your sister does as well."

"I'm going to go find her," he replies, and leaves the Big House. His sister is nowhere in sight, not even in the Hermes Cabin. Bellamy walks into the woods surrounding the camp, heading for the nearby river.

He doesn't find Octavia—he finds Percy. And, well, he's unconscious. Bellamy runs to him, finding a massive welt oozing something—venomous. Percy had been poisoned by something.

"Holy _shit,"_ Bellamy mumbles, dragging his lifeless form up. "Oh, god."

He's barely out of the forest when he finds Annabeth and Clarke talking quietly.

"Oh, god!" Clarke exclaims, her gaze landing on Bellamy. "Is that—?"

"Let's get him to the Big House," Annabeth says immediately. "Here, we'll help you."

And together, they haul his body to Chiron.

* * *

"It's pit scorpion venom," Chiron declares. "I don't know if he'll wake up."

"He _has_ to," Annabeth spits. "He's going to wake up."

"I'll do my best to heal him, and we can get to the nectar and ambrosia later, alright?" Chiron says, rubbing his temples. "It's going to be fine."

* * *

Percy wakes sometime later, and Clarke, who had been sleeping lightly in a chair near one of the other sickbeds, jerks awake at Annabeth's gasp.

"Here we are again," says Percy weakly, before looking at Bellamy and nodding. 

"You idiot," Annabeth says, but she sounds affectionate. Clarke and Bellamy share a glance before looking away. "You were green and turning grey when we found you. If it weren't for Chiron's healing—"

"Now, now," the centaur says, "Percy's constitution deserves some of the credit."

"How are you feeling?" Bellamy asks.

"Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved," he groans.

"Makes sense considering the venom," Clarke says softly. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"I got screwed over," Percy spits. "Luke and Ares are working for Kronos."

The room darkens momentarily, and a chill seeps into Bellamy's bones. "The father of the Olympians."

"Ares sabotaged me and put the bolt in my backpack," Percy explains. "He obviously expected me to die. Plus, the flying shoes Luke gave me? They were cursed. It almost dragged Grover down into Tartarus."

Annabeth puts her face in her hands, looking devastated. "I can't believe Luke would—actually, yes, I can," she hisses, looking up. "He was always bitter about the Olympians. Always saying things that we shouldn't have let him say... he was never the same after his quest to the Garden of the Hesperides failed."

"I have to inform Olympus," Chiron says.

"Luke is still out there!" Percy exclaims. "I can't just sit back here and do nothing!"

"Yeah, neither can the rest of us!" Clarke adds on.

"The gods—" Chiron starts.

"Won't even talk about Kronos!" says Percy. "Zeus and Poseidon considered it, but his name was mentioned once, and case closed! They don't even want to consider it, Chiron. They think it's too much of a stretch. And if we wait, Luke will do something horrible and Kronos could come back to life!"

He takes a deep breath, then leans back, wincing. Annabeth squeezes his shoulder.

"You are very weak at the moment, Percy," Chiron states. "There's nothing you can do now. I'm sorry."

"What about the prophecy from the Oracle?" he pushes. "The Great Prophecy or something, it was about Kronos, wasn't it? And it had me, it had Annabeth, maybe it even had Bellamy and Clarke, right?"

"You cannot know now, Percy, it isn't my place to give it to you at this moment. Knowing too much about your future..."

He trails off, looking grim. "We must take it one step at a time. And our next step is to get you healed and warn Olympus."

Bellamy sighs, fingering the string around his neck, with one bead necklace, a blueish-green trident painted on the black surface. Every summer, each camper gets a bead symbolizing the main event. He had been overjoyed with it, to be honest, but now it feels like a cinderblock hanging on his neck.

"Chiron," says Echo, bursting in. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" he asks.

"We have missing campers," she huffs.

"Luke," Clarke and Annabeth say immediately. 

"Yeah, him and a few others."

"Who?" Bellamy asks, straightening. "Who else is missing?"

"Chris Rodriguez," she says. "And Octavia Blake."

* * *

"You could come back to New York for the rest of the year," Percy says. "Your mom—she'd be happy to see you. And we could see each other in Manhattan."

"It sounds like a good plan," Bellamy sighs. "But I need to find my sister. 

Percy swallows. "Can I be honest with you?"

"Sure."

He looks at Bellamy. "Luke is—really persuasive. He can make anything seem like a good idea. So maybe, when you find your sister—you have to deal with the fact that she might not want to leave him. Because I know that's where she'll be. With Luke."

Bellamy stays silent.

"Good luck at camp, man," Percy continues, giving him a one-armed hug. "Hopefully we both live to see next summer."

"Yeah," Bellamy replies, nodding.

Percy's gone the following day.

* * *

Bellamy sits cross-legged in the Ares Cabin, frowning.

"What's the problem, Blake?" Murphy says, catching sight of him. "You look mad."

"Can we leave the camp without Mr. D or Chiron's permission?" he asks.

"Woah," Murphy says, sitting down on his own bunk. "Not us. Hermes Cabin could pull it off, but no."

"But it _is_ possible."

"Bellamy, your sister's probably fine, you know? Luke's not gonna hurt her."

"I still need to find her," Bellamy protests. "And Chiron won't give me a quest. Says it's too dangerous."

"Ask again, and again. He can't say no forever, I guess."

"Yeah, maybe," Bellamy sighs. "God, my brain is going to like, explode."

"Don't worry, man, really," Murphy says, looking serious for once. "We'll find her."

"Thanks, Murphy," Bellamy sighs, sliding off of his bunk. "I'm going to the Big House."

Before he's even halfway there, however, Clarke intercepts him, looking panicked. "We have a really big problem. It's Thalia's tree."

Thalia's tree was the heart and center of the protective wards around camp, the life source. If something had happened to it...

"What is it?" he asks, looking towards the borders, and suddenly, the air feels stale and electric, nothing like the sweet breeze that was normally present at Camp Half-Blood.

"It's dying," Clarke says. "Someone poisoned it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [here](https://twitter.com/heda_skai) is my twitter


	2. the poisoned tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you guys for the immense amount of support i've received lately. I really needed that, and i realized that i will keep writing. well obviously i am but here's my official statement i guess. i love all of you guys so much!!!
> 
> this chapter is a BEAST also if there are any grammatical issues whoops i guess lmao

Bellamy spits out a wad of blood as he scrambles to his feet, his Celestial Bronze shortsword in his hand.

"You okay, Bellamy?" Raven asks, turning an _aternae_ into monster dust.

"You know what I just realized?" he replies. "I really hate border patrol."

"Hey, _punk!"_ he hears someone yell, and Bellamy has never been more glad to hear Clarisse's voice. "Is it your shift yet?" he yells back.

"Yeah!" she screams. "Go, one of the Athena kids need you!"

Bellamy disintegrates one last monster and runs back towards camp, trying not to look at the wilted plants around the Demeter Cabin for too long. 

"Bellamy," Malcolm Pace says, meeting him by the amphitheater. "How is it out there?"

"Tiring," he admits, looking sadly down at the burn marks at his long-sleeved camp t-shirt. "We can barely take care of all the monsters, dude."

"Yeah, well Tantalus is getting suspicious," Malcolm says, glancing over at the Big House as if the greasy man in question will show up. He had been appointed as camp director after Chiron had been deposed. Everyone knew that it wasn't Chiron's fault that Thalia's tree was poisoned, but as of now, he's stuck in the Big House until people reach a decision as to whether he'll be forced to leave or not. "We're lucky he doesn't care much about what our exact schedules are."

"Yeah, lucky us," Bellamy mutters.

"He was looking for you, by the way. Said you had a call."

"Oh, thanks, Malcolm," Bellamy splutters before dashing off to the Big House, singed and bloodstained clothes forgotten. He heads straight for the phone, and dials his mom's number.

_"Bell? Honey, is that you?"_

"Yeah, it's me, Ma, hi."

_"How's school?"_

"It's fine, it's really great," Bellamy says, wiping blood off of his cheekbone. The Mist was something that was everywhere and made mortals see things in a logical way, and hid monsters from their view. Chiron had manipulated the mist around Aurora before he left to make her think that Bellamy's time at Camp Half-Blood was actually spent in a boarding school on Long Island.

_"And Octavia? Is she doing okay?"_

His stomach sinks. "She's alright. She's made a lot of friends."

_"Is she here? Can I talk to her?"_

"She's a little busy right now," Bellamy mumbles. "But maybe later."

He hangs up, feeling tired. This isn't how imagined spending the days after his thirteenth birthday, but he supposes it'll have to be that way.

* * *

The monster attacks go down as November ends and goes into December. The Ares and Apollo Cabins continue to help other campers with learning how to hold their own in a fight, but Bellamy figures they won't stand a chance if the monsters start attacking again. There are long periods of peace, where they don't have to battle hordes of creatures at all, but he knows there will be more times when that does happen.

"For the love of Zeus, will you please pay attention?" Clarke says. She's become increasingly harder to be around lately, getting snappier as more time passes since the tree had been poisoned. "It's like you're trying to screw it all up."

"I'm a little preoccupied, Clarke!" he replies indignantly.

"Doesn't mean you can just let everything else go!" she snaps, standing up and crossing her arms. 

"We have problems, and unlike _you,_ I'm not running away from them!" he replies, and he knows he's a total jerk for saying that, but it feels good in the moment.

"You are _insufferable,"_ she declares. "I can't believe I ever thought I'd be friends with an _Ares_ kid."

"What?" Bellamy splutters, getting to his feet, pleased with the fact that he's still an inch or so taller than Clarke.

"Forget it," she says in a tone that clearly suggests that she won't forget it any time soon, and neither will he. "I'm going to go do something worth my time."

She storms off down the hill without taking the heavy book written in Ancient Greek, and Bellamy kicks the grass in anger as he mutters under his breath, feeling more annoyed and helpless than ever.

* * *

Bellamy is still irritated when he bursts into the Ares cabin, but it quickly evaporates at the sight of Echo sitting on her bunk. He stands completely still, and his eyes widen when he hears her sniffle.

"Uh," he says. "Echo?"

Her hands fly up to wipe her face, and she stands to turn and face him. "Hi, Bellamy."

"You—you're back!" he says incredulously. As far as he knew, Echo wasn't a year-round camper, leaving Clarisse in charge when she wasn't there. Bellamy had the feeling Clarisse wasn't going to be too thrilled about their senior counselor coming back.

"It wasn't easy getting back to camp with all the monsters near it," she says, not a single hint of her sadness or tears in sight. She grabs her chrome bow from the stand by her bunk. "But the camp needed me."

"Why were you crying?" he blurts, then shakes his head. "Sorry, that's none of my business—"

"It's alright, Bellamy," she says, tilting her head. "I'm just a little sad I had to leave school in the middle of my sophomore year. And my boyfriend, Roan."

Oh, he's so dumb. Of _course_ Echo would have a boyfriend.

"Oh, um, I'm really sorry about that," he says, his ears feeling really, really hot all of a sudden.

"No, I'm sorry," she replies. "I heard about your sister. They're not letting you got after her, right?"

"Right," he mutters.

"We'll find her," Echo assures him, walking over to him and patting his shoulder like one would pat a small child. "Don't worry."

She walks out of the cabin with her bow, leaving behind the faint smell of pine leaves. Bellamy shakes his head, changing into a fresh shirt and pulling his sweatshirt on over it. He misses being able to talk to Chiron when he's worried, and he even misses Percy. And although Chiron is still at camp, Bellamy's never able to talk to him for more than a few minutes at a time, due to his weird prisoner-like state. He kind of misses talking to Clarke, but he'd never admit that.

He catches Raven limping over to her cabin wearing a red jacket, looking disgruntled. "What's up with you?" he asks the angry 14-year-old.

"It's that asshole Tantalus," she spits. "He wants Hephaestus Cabin to make a statue of him in pure _Celestial Bronze._ Do you have any idea how much time and resources that'll take? Of course you don't."

"Well, are you going to?" he asks.

"Obviously not!" Raven exclaims. "We're not wasting valuable Celestial Bronze on a _statue._ We'll probably just have Beckendorf make an aluminum one and just spray paint it bronze or something."

"Right," Bellamy mutters. "Cool."

He walks aimlessly around camp, feeling—angry. In Camp Half-Blood, Bellamy had apparently gained the reputation of being one of the nicest, calmest Ares kids, but right now, he feels every bit as violent and enraged as the rest of his half-siblings.

He manages to spend the rest of his day without punching someone in the face, but naturally, his dreams have to put him in a bad mood again.

* * *

_"Are you sure this boat is really safe?"_

_Bellamy is in a beautiful stateroom on a cruise, and his heart starts to pound as he looks at his little sister—a little taller, a little bigger, hair a little longer and a lot messier. He wants to hug her, but Luke—he's right there, sitting in front of her._

_"It is, O, I promise." Bellamy's blood boils at his casual use of her nickname, reserved solely for her big brother. "None of the monsters here will hurt you. In fact, they'll do whatever you want."_

_He wants to yell at Luke to step away from Octavia, but he can't open his mouth. He glances at what seems to be a massive sarcophagus, lit with a golden glow, and it makes him shiver, even in the dream._

_"The world is going to change, Octavia," says Luke with a small smile. "And you, me, and all of our friends will be there together, in the end."_

* * *

Bellamy sits up, putting his chin in his hands. Clarisse is snoring lightly, and he frowns. He can't remember where he was in the dream, but he knows that Luke and Octavia were there, together, talking. And he knows that there was something that scared him, scared him more than anything in the world—

He sighs and leans back into a lying position, closing his eyes, but he doesn't sleep again until the first light of dawn shines through the small window at the front of the cabin.

Later that afternoon, it is snowing, but none of it gets past the borders, which are still working against the weather. It is cold, however, so Bellamy pulls on his favorite sweatshirt and heads for the dining pavilion where Clarke is supposed to meet him for their Ancient Greek lessons. After about ten minutes, however, she doesn't show.

He looks down at his shoes, feeling immensely guilty. Pulling his hood down, he heads towards the Athena Cabin, knocking on the door.

"Hi, Malcolm," Bellamy says sheepishly when the door is opened. "Is Clarke in here?"

"She's at the archery range, but I doubt she wants to see you," Malcolm admits. "I have no idea what you did, but she's mad at you."

"Thanks for telling me, I didn't know," he mumbles, and the Athena camper sighs, rolling his eyes.

"Just be careful when you're talking to her," Malcolm warns him. "She might put an arrow through your eye."

Bellamy thanks him and heads for the archery range, and soon he can see Clarke standing there, standing next to Will Solace from Apollo Cabin, a small kid, about Octavia's age. Despite that, _he_ seems to be showing Clarke some technique with his own bow, the latter nodding and holding her bow the way Will shows her.

It doesn't take long for Clarke to notice Bellamy standing there, and she gives Will a high-five before walking over to Bellamy. "What do you want?" she asks, once she's close enough to shoot him point-blank with an arrow. If Bellamy was a mortal, the Celestial Bronze arrow would go through him like he was smoke, but because of the godly blood in his veins, he would definitely die if Clarke decided to shoot him right now.

"I'm—I'm sorry," he mumbles.

"What?" she asks. "I can't hear you." This is definitely a lie, but Bellamy figures that she deserves a better apology. 

He looks up into her eyes. "I'm really sorry, Clarke. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, really. I've just been really worried about my sister, but I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I'm really sorry."

She frowns, and Bellamy's brain chooses that exact moment to reflect on how pretty her eyes are.

_No! Nope! Not the time, you idiot!_

"It's okay," she says finally. "I understand, Bellamy. And I'd be down to go on a quest for your sister right now, but—it's too dangerous to leave camp."

"Even camp isn't safe these days," Bellamy says, glancing towards the dying tree. "That's a useless argument, Clarke, and you know it."

"Maybe," she concedes. "But you're still pretty new here. You aren't ready for a quest."

 _"Percy_ got a quest a few weeks after he arrived."

"Those were special circumstances," Clarke says. "Percy didn't want to be in that position, but him being the son of Poseidon kind of changed things."

"I'm still a child of Ares," Bellamy says. "I can fight."

"I know you can, Bell," she says, and his stomach does a cartwheel at the way she says _Bell._ "Either way, that idiot Tantalus would never let us go. You know that."

He rubs the back of his neck. It begins to snow.

Bellamy looks up, frowning.

"Don't worry about it," Clarke says, sounding miserable. "Mr. D lets snow fall sometimes for the holiday spirit or whatever. Or lack of it."

He misses New York City, he realizes. It was perfect at Christmas, no matter how many issues he'd have. It would always feel like home. 

Clarke rolls the sleeves of her sweater back down before jogging away to her cabin, putting the bow and quiver back on their respective racks at the archery range. Feeling cold and depressed, he goes back to his cabin to get ready for his shift at the camp border.

* * *

Life as a year-round camper isn't nearly as exciting as Bellamy expected it to be, even with the occasional stints of heightened monster activity around the camp borders. There's not much to do except hang out with Raven, Murphy, and Clarke, the campers who are now his closest friends at camp, and even that isn't always fun. They're always called away to do other stuff, and their conversations have recently been more about the fate of the camp than about other stuff.

But winter still comes and goes, and before Bellamy really even knows it, April is ending, and some excitement is returning to the camp despite the lack of sweetness in the air, anticipation of the return of everyone else. 

"Annabeth sent me a message," Clarke says, walking up to him as he's training in the sword arena one day. "She's on the run."

"Why?" he asks.

"Apparently had some issues with her dad and her step-mom," she explains, absentmindedly punching a dummy with no real force. "Told me she's going to find Percy and tell him what I told her about camp."

"She's gonna go all the way from Virginia to Manhattan?" Bellamy says in disbelief. "Someone has to be there for her!"

"Annabeth's tough, she can make it on her own," Clarke mumbles. "I want to help as much as you do, more because she's a good friend. But we can't."

Bellamy puts his sword on the table at one end of the arena, sitting down on the chair with a sigh. "Octavia has been missing for almost a year. And what have I done? Absolutely nothing." He looks up at Clarke. "I had dreams. I saw her with Luke. I can't remember where, but she's with him. Percy was right. He told me that he suspected Octavia was with him. And there was something else, too. Something really old and really angry..."

He trails off, his hands clenched.

"Demigods tend to have weird dreams," Clarke says. "They see what's going on in the world, but it almost never makes sense. I have dreams where I see Annabeth, talking about the Golden—well, never mind. Like I said, it's never supposed to make sense."

"At least she's okay," Bellamy says miserably. "Luke won't hurt her. He wants her to be with them when they apparently destroy the world or something. But somehow, that feels worse than him letting monsters have her for dinner."

"I'm going to try to convince Tantalus to give us a quest," Clarke says, putting her hand on Bellamy's shoulder. His stomach does that flip again. "We can see if we can at least find out more."

"You'd do that?"

"You're my friend, idiot," she says. "Of course I would."

He swallows, feeling emotional all of a sudden. Maybe it's because he's so tired, maybe because he misses his sister, and maybe for no reason at all, but he fights back tears. "Thanks."

Bellamy practically runs out of there before she can say anything else.

* * *

"Hey, Clarisse?" Bellamy asks, walking into the Ares Cabin.

"What do you want, you measled punk?" she asks, which Bellamy supposes is a nicer greeting than usual. Most of the time, she tries to punch him in the face. 

"Do you know what the Golden Fleece is?"

"Of course I do, you idiot," she replies, but she looks thoughtful. "But it's pretty much gone, punk. No one knows where it has been for the past century or two."

"Oh," he mumbles. "Well—thanks."

"Yeah, whatever," she responds, and Bellamy rolls his eyes before heading to dinner. 

The Athena table is next to the Ares table, and as he eats, he catches Clarke staring at him. Once she notices, she gives him a meaningful look before turning to Dionysus and Tantalus, and then looking at the Big House.

Now, Bellamy hasn't totally mastered the art of communicating solely through eyes with Clarke yet, but he's pretty sure that it has something to do with a quest.

 _Not yet,_ he mouths. 

Clarke frowns, raising her hand in a _why?_ gesture before one of her younger siblings pull her arm and ask her something. Once she turns back, Bellamy just sighs and shakes his head. _Later,_ he mouths.

She rolls her eyes, going back to her food and her siblings. In all honesty, Bellamy can't really put his finger on why his need to ask for a quest has faded—even though the burning need to find Octavia hasn't.

Maybe—maybe it's because of what Percy had said last summer. And what he had remembered of that dream, with Octavia and Luke. The fact that Percy was right about his sister not wanting to leave Luke—it made Bellamy all the more apprehensive. His sister was stubborn.

_But she loves me, right?_

He frowns to himself, trying to pay attention to Lexa and Clarisse's conversation about who's better with a spear.

* * *

A couple weeks later, Raven runs over to him while he's taking his Ancient Greek lessons with Clarke, panting and covered in soot.

"What in the _hell_ happened to you?" Clarke asks.

"Big metal bulls at the border," says an Asian kid behind Raven, looking tired. Bellamy recognizes him as Monty Green from the Demeter Cabin, a fairly new camper. "We need help."

"Great," Clarke mutters. "We'll be there as soon as possible."

Once Bellamy and Clarke have gotten their armor and their weapons, they sprint to Thalia's tree, where a horde of bronze, fire-breathing bulls are attacking.

"Colchis Bulls!" screams Clarisse at the front of the fray, who is evidently leading the fight. "Come on, _move!"_

Clarke shoves Bellamy out of the way seconds before a plume of fire is sent directly to where he was standing. He hastily thanks her and brings out his shortsword, sliding on the ground to get in close to the bulls. He makes it under the thick, metal legs of one, and it's so hot there that he thinks, for a second, that his face is going to melt off of his skull.

 _My camp is under attack,_ he thinks. _My sister is gone, and she's out with the guy who made this happen. Who brought the monsters here._ And Bellamy—at that exact moment, he realizes that he never really experienced true anger, not until then. Right now, his head is going to _explode,_ and he's never, ever wanted violence more. 

He brings his sword up into the belly of the monster, and it explodes into flames just after he scrambles away.

Next to him, he sees a man standing there in a leather jacket, looking nonchalant. He peers down at him, and Bellamy realizes that the guy looks a lot like him—dark curly hair, tanned skin. But his eye sockets have flames instead of eyes, and he grins. "Not bad, kid," he says, then reaches out to touch Bellamy's forehead. "Have a gift from your dad."

Warmth spreads through his body, and he stands, his fatigue wearing away in an instant.

"Bellamy, you're on fire!" Raven yells.

"That's the blessing of Ares, birdbrain!" Clarisse yells back at her.

Raven is right—there's a red glow all around him, and when he throws himself back into the midst of battle, nothing touches him—he feels the cuts and bruises disappear, and he sure as hell doesn't get any new ones. He is invincible, running on anger. In that moment, he feels like a true child of Ares.

He sees the campers fall back, and he finishes the remaining bulls easily, with calm fury. An oxymoron, but it fits. He fights for what seems like hours, but the glow fades, and he collapses onto the ground, panting, not a bull in sight.

"Dude," Clarisse says, running over to him and holding him up, her grip surprisingly gentle. "Are you okay?"

"I feel great," he says. "But at the same time, I don't."

"You just had the blessing of Ares," Clarke says in awe. "It made you invincible for a bit. It turned your anger into power."

"Huh," he says. "Makes sense."

"And you're taller, too," Raven says.

"Damn it," Clarke mumbles.

Bellamy then hears a dull pounding, getting louder and louder. Everyone else looks up too, and Clarisse swears. "It's _ANOTHER WAVE!"_ she screams, getting to her feet. _"HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!"_

More bulls storm the border, and Bellamy sighs, letting Miller pull him up. "Feeling better?" Clarke asks.

"Yup. Let's kick some Colchis ass," he mumbles, and brings his sword up again. 

He's not sure when it happens, but _Percy Jackson_ is charging into the battle, looking vaguely annoyed and very tired, wearing a torn tie-dye shirt. Clarisse is currently taking a pair of bulls by herself, and Percy runs to help her. Before Bellamy can see what happens next however, another bulls comes for him, and with Clarke's help, they take it down. Another familiar face shows itself, and Bellamy cranes his neck to see her. 

"Hi, Bellamy," says Annabeth Chase, also looking disgruntled and messy.

"Hi, Annabeth," he replies. "Need help?"

"Probably," she says, but it's a clear denial. He lets her and Clarke take the next bull while he, Murphy, and Echo work on another. A really big guy appears in his vision, but Bellamy's too busy trying not to get burned alive to pay attention to it. 

It takes a while but all of the bulls are eventually taken care of, and the campers stand there, exhausted. 

"Great," says Annabeth. "That went about as well as I thought it would."

* * *

As Bellamy and Clarke are walking together before splitting up to go to their respective cabins, he sees Chiron on the porch of the Big House. He nudges Clarke and they head to the centaur, who looks sad.

"Bellamy, Clarke," Chiron says. He's in centaur form right now, but there's a wheelchair on the porch next to him, which is a major part of his human disguise. "It's good to see you out here rather than through the small window of a door."

"What's the verdict?" Clarke asks.

"I'm afraid I have to leave. I was just out here for some air before packing up the last of my things."

"That's so unfair!" Bellamy protests. "It wasn't your fault, the campers can vouch for you—"

"The word of children is nothing against the word of gods," the centaur says grimly. "My father is Kronos, as you may already know from your studies, Bellamy. And it appears that fact is reason enough for me to poison the tree."

Clarke glances at her shoes. "I'm so sorry, Chiron."

"I suspect I won't be gone for long," he replies, though it sounds to Bellamy like he doesn't really believe it. "Also—Clarke had spoken to me about your suspicions.

Bellamy frowns. "Suspicions."

Chiron gives him a meaningful look, leaning closer to them. "We are beyond the point of asking permission. Clarke, you must take him to the Oracle. Go on a quest. You must know more."

With that, he goes back inside.

"The Oracle is here?" Bellamy asks.

Clarke grimaces, clearly displeased with Chiron's instructions. "We'll worry about that later. Come on, let's get cleaned up."

* * *

Later that evening, Bellamy finds Percy standing by the dining pavilion, still in his tie-dye shirt.

"Nice shirt," Bellamy mutters. 

"This sucks," says Percy, punching Bellamy lightly in the shoulder.

"Yeah," Bellamy agrees. "I don't know what's going to happen now."

"And on top of that..." the son of Poseidon trails off, looking uncomfortable. After the battle, apparently a small Cyclops had been claimed as Percy's half-brother, and even in the few hours since it's happened, Bellamy's heard campers make fun of Percy ruthlessly for that. Tyson seems nice and pretty harmless, but Bellamy guesses that he can kind of imagine how his friend feels.

"And now _Annabeth_ is annoyed with me," Percy continues, rubbing his eyes. Bellamy can think of about a million things to say in response to that, but he decides to keep that to himself. He may be a child of Ares, but he's too tired to have Percy attack him right now.

"Just take it easy, I guess," Bellamy says finally. "You and Annabeth are good friends. You'll figure it out. We all will, I guess."

"You are the nicest Ares kid I've ever met," Percy states. "Like, ever. I can't believe you're related to that jerk."

"Oh," Bellamy says. "Yeah, Clarisse told me about the curse of Ares thing."

"Yeah," says Percy. "Oh, well, I guess, right?"

"Such an optimist," Bellamy snickers, elbowing Percy in the ribs. "I'm going to dinner. You might want to change out of the shirt. It looks great, but it's not really your style." Percy kicks him in the shins before going to the Poseidon cabin, and feeling a little better than before, Bellamy heads to the Ares table.

* * *

The following few days are jam-packed with a weird mixture of excitement and misery. Tantalus is still as horrible as ever, but bringing back chariot races has lifted camp spirits a little. Except on the day of the first race, the camp is attacked by Stymphalian Birds, which are basically evil, carnivorous pigeons. It leaves Bellamy, who was watching in the stands, with tiny scratch marks all over his face.

Fortunately for Clarisse, it gives her a quest. Because when Annabeth proposes the idea that the Golden Fleece could save the camp borders, Tantalus immediately gives Clarisse the authority to go and retrieve it and visit the Oracle.

Later that night, Clarisse comes into the Ares Cabin, looking nervous.

"What is it?" Lexa asks. Echo looks up from polishing her arrows, the same question in her eyes.

"Murphy, Lexa, you guys are on the quest," Clarisse says tersely. "We have to sail into the Sea of Monsters."

"The _what?"_ everyone except Clarisse and Echo yell. 

"That's what the prophecy said," Clarisse says uncomfortably. "Three campers. But—I want you guys to stay behind."

"What? Why?" Murphy asks indignantly.

"The camp is still unprotected," she replies, her voice uncharacteristically calm and quiet. "This cabin has the only people I trust in protecting the camp, or at least leading it. Yeah, even you, punk," Clarisse adds, noting Bellamy's surprised expression. "I don't want this quest. I've waited for a quest for years, but now, I feel weird about leaving when the camp is so undefended. I'll have to go, but the least I can do is have more people staying behind to defend this place. I swear it's not about getting all the glory for myself."

"We believe you, Clarisse," Lexa says after a moment of silence. "But it is kind of Echo's call. Senior camper."

"No question about it," Echo says. "It's the best thing. Ares isn't the god of military strategy for nothing, guys." She glances at her younger half-sister. "I trust you, Clarisse. I'm only worried about whether you can pull this off alone."

"I won't be alone," Clarisse mutters. "Our dad is supplying dead warriors."

Bellamy's suddenly glad he isn't on this quest, because he doesn't particularly like the idea of sailing around with a bunch of skeletons.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," says Clarisse. "Before dawn."

Everyone nods solemnly. Bellamy has never seen the Ares Cabin so subdued. "Good luck," he says to her. "It's not really mandatory, but you should come back alive."

"Shut up, idiot," Clarisse snaps, but her expression and the lack of force behind the punch she lands to his stomach proves that she appreciates the sentiment nonetheless.

* * *

The following afternoon, Clarke finds Bellamy before their Ancient Greek lesson. "Something wrong?" he asks her.

"Annabeth sent me an Iris-message," Clarke explains, looking around the camp. "She snuck out of camp with Percy and Tyson."

Bellamy's eyes widen, but he keeps his mouth shut.

"They found this cruise ship called the Princess Andromeda," Clarke continues. "They suspect Luke might be on it, and there's a small army of monsters on it, too."

"That means—"

"That's where your sister might be," she finishes.

"It is," Bellamy declares. "I've been trying to remember it for ages, but when I had that dream of Luke and Octavia, they were in the stateroom of a cruise ship, I know for sure now. That's where they are."

Clarke looks thoughtful. "You could talk to her. Now that you know where she is, you could send her an Iris-message."

"No way!" he counters. The idea is simply too risky, now that Octavia spends time with Luke. Wasn't Clarke supposed to be a daughter of Athena?

"Look, I know why you feel nervous about it," she says. "But it _is_ worth a shot. Even if you can't get through to Octavia, we might be able to find something out from here."

Bellamy frowns. He wants to keep pointing out how bad of an idea it is, but Clarke looks pretty persistent about it, and he doesn't really want to argue with her. "Fine," he says. "Do you have a drachma?"

* * *

They go down to the canoe lake and Clarke asks one of the naiads, or water nymphs, to create a spray of water to make a rainbow. 

"Octavia Blake," says Bellamy, glancing at Clarke. "The Princess Andromeda."

The mist fades into an image, and Bellamy freezes when he sees his sister. 

Octavia turns, and he says a silent thanks to whichever god happens to be around that she's alone.

"Bellamy?" she asks. "W—why—?"

"Are you okay, are you hurt?" he asks immediately. 

"I'm fine," she hisses. "Bellamy, _why_ did you send me an Iris-message? Do you have any idea how stupid that was?"

"You want to talk about stupid?" Bellamy snaps. "Why are you with the guy who's trying to destroy Western Civilization as we know it?"

"The death of the gods is long overdue," Octavia says sharply, and it's not something Bellamy would've expected from the mouth of an eleven-year-old. Almost twelve, but not like that makes a difference. "Nobody at camp cared that the gods didn't claim me."

"That's not true—"

"But Luke did. He knows what it's like to be forgotten. He understood, Bellamy, and he did more for me than you ever did."

His mouth falls open. Clarke grabs his shirt. 

"A new world is coming, Bellamy," says Octavia. "Maybe if you do the right thing—I'll see you in it."

She brings out a sword that's too big for her and slashes through the image, cutting the connection.

"Bellamy—" Clarke starts to say.

"Take me to the Oracle," he says. His voice is shaking, but he doesn't care. It's Clarke. And if he can't trust her, he can't trust anyone. "We need a quest. And I have to find her."

* * *

She takes him to the Big House attic, full of relics from old quests. There's a scarf in the corner, and Bellamy reaches for it, feeling the soft material. _Scarf of Aphrodite,_ the plaque in front of it reads. _Retrieved from Waterland Denver by Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase._

Still holding the scarf, he glances at Clarke, who approaches the mummy sitting on the stool. His stomach does that familiar flip, and he lets go.

"Ask her," says Clarke. "Ask her what your fate is."

He swallows. "What is my fate?"

The mummy looks up, making him flinch. _"Four shall face the king of the dead, the final shroud of deepest red,"_ it hisses, somehow without opening its mouth. _"The web of paths and the inventor's key, the child entombed finally free."_

The green smoke that had appeared in the room abruptly fades, and Bellamy exhales. "What the hell?"

"Let's go downstairs," Clarke mutters. "She's not going to give us any more answers."

* * *

"No freakin' way," says Raven, chucking her knife down, burying it in the wooden nightstand beside Clarisse's bunk. Bellamy winces, but doesn't say anything.

"This is a bad idea, dude, even for me," Murphy states. "Going out of camp without the explicit permission from one of the directors—"

"I never thought _you_ were big on permission," Bellamy counters, but Murphy shakes his head. "This is a big deal, big man. You're right about the permission thing, but it's still bad if we just decide to leave the camp."

"We're not _kids,_ we can handle it!" Bellamy protests.

"We _are_ kids!" Raven says. "And we're about to leave the camp without Mr. D's permission. We'll be _murdered."_

"We have the prophecy," Clarke says, though she doesn't look too excited about it. "And we can't ignore it. It's going to happen anyway. Might as well let things go the way they're supposed to. And besides—" she adds, glancing at Bellamy. "Chiron told us to consult the Oracle. We have his blessing to leave camp."

"Chiron's not a director," Murphy counters. "Not anymore."

"He is to us," Bellamy says. "Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson managed to leave camp and get onto Luke's ship. We can, too."

"If we're going to do this," Raven mutters, prying her knife out of the nightstand, "we need to understand the prophecy. And we need to keep this to ourselves."

"It's a relatively short prophecy," Clarke says reassuringly. "It shouldn't take long."

"So first, we have 'the king of the dead.' Hades?" asks Murphy.

"Hades is _technically_ the king of the dead," Raven agrees. "It could be some ghost king—"

"Like an Ancient Greek one?" Bellamy interrupts. "I don't think any of them are relevant to the quest."

"What exactly is the point of the quest again?" Murphy drawls.

Bellamy looks at Clarke, and even she looks stumped. "It has to do with Octavia. That's what I asked the Oracle about," he lies.

"That's not good," Clarke says, and he's glad she didn't call him out on his lie. "That means there's a chance of running into Luke."

"Better," says Bellamy. "We might intercept Percy and Annabeth."

"There's just one thing," Raven sighs. "The prophecy doesn't say anything about the sea. Or even the Sea of Monsters, eliminating any chance that it has anything to do with Clarisse."

"Then we take it one step at a time, I guess," says Murphy. "We see our buddy downstairs. And then—the color red."

"And a red shroud," Bellamy adds.

"Red flag," Clarke murmurs, biting her lip. Bellamy looks away from her, his ears feeling hot. "A warning? And a red shroud..."

She trails off, frowning.

"What is it?" asks Bellamy.

"A b—a burial shroud," she says softly. "A red burial shroud for a child of Ares."

Bellamy swallows, and everyone else in the room is suddenly looking at him and Murphy as if they're already dead. "Great," he says. "That's fantastic."

"It might not be any of you," Raven says. "You aren't the only children of Ares."

"We're the only children of Ares on this quest," he mutters. "But I appreciate the thought."

"We can't get stuck on that one detail," Murphy implores, looking remarkably unfazed by the possibility of his death. "We should move on. "A web of paths?"

"I really hope it has nothing to do with spiders," Clarke mumbles.

"A maze," Raven states. "It could be a maze."

"What does a _maze_ have anything to do with this?" Murphy asks. Clarke opens her mouth, then closes it, scowling. "Inventor's key—"

"Raven's an inventor," Bellamy says. 

"I don't have any type of key, dude."

"So a key and a maze," Clarke states. "And none of us can figure out what that means."

"Moving on," Murphy says loudly. "Child entombed—"

"Finally free," Bellamy finishes. "I don't really like the sound of this prophecy."

"Could it mean—Chiron's dad?" Clarke asks quietly.

Murphy looks up so fast that Bellamy's afraid for a second that he might have broken his neck. "No way. Don't even think about it."

"It can't be," Bellamy says quickly. "He isn't exactly a 'child,' is he?"

Silence falls in the cabin, until Clarke starts speaking again. "I'll have Miller grab us some essentials from the camp store. We leave tomorrow at dawn. There's an entrance to the Underworld in New York city; we can get there by bus. There's a bus station about two miles north of Camp Half-Blood. We'll go from there."

"And you're sure Miller isn't going to snitch?" Raven presses.

"Miller's no snitch," Clarke assures them.

"We're going to die," Murphy says.

"Probably," she adds. With that, they all head to dinner.

* * *

"I'm going to be completely honest," says Raven. "I really didn't expect to make it this far."

All around them, people walk around and bike and sit on the grass and generally just enjoy the summer weather in Central Park, completely unaware that there's a door to the Underworld near them.

"So what now?" Bellamy asks.

"We go in," Clarke replies, adjusting the strap of her duffel bag.

"Personally, I think this is a terrible idea," Murphy mutters. "Like, really, _really_ bad."

"Shut up, Murphy," Bellamy hisses, walking to the pile of rocks. "Clarke, you're sure this is it?"

"Pretty much."

"Did she say _pretty much?"_ Raven asks in disbelief.

After checking that no one's watching, Bellamy moves some of the rocks. And sure enough, there's a dark tunnel below.

"Oh, god," Clarke mumbles, covering her mouth and turning away. "That's a really small tunnel."

"Yo, are you claustrophobic?" Murphy snickers. 

"Shut up!"

"I'm going in," Bellamy says, putting his feet in the hole. 

"That's what she said."

"I swear to _Zeus,_ Murphy—"

Bellamy stops talking when his feet hit firm, solid ground. "Hurry up and get down here," he says, looking up. "Time for a little trip into the Underworld."

Clarke swears profusely as she climbs into the tunnel, followed by Murphy and then Raven. Once they're all inside, they get out their flashlights and turn them on, illuminating a part of what seems to be an endless dark tunnel.

"I'm not liking it," Murphy says quietly. "I am not liking this at all."

"You don't have to say that every five minutes, Jonathan," Raven hisses.

"Jonathan?" Bellamy snickers.

Murphy groans in frustration. "Remind me to break your leg again when we get back, Raven."

"Again?" says Bellamy in disbelief. Clarke catches his eye and makes a heart with her hands before jerking her chin at the two now arguing in hushed voices. Bellamy rolls his eyes and smirks. They continue on for a few minutes, the only sound being their footsteps and Raven and Murphy swearing at each other.

"Murphy," Clarke says suddenly. "Murphy, shut up."

"No, this is _import—"_

Clarke whirls around and clamps her hand over his mouth. He scowls, but he doesn't say anything. And that's when Bellamy starts to hear the voices a little better.

"—unknown by the Olympians. Even the old horse doesn't know."

"Good. I've heard whispers of what's to come, and I cannot say I don't support it. If the Titan of Time wishes to eliminate the brats, it will go well."

"Stay here," Clarke whispers as quietly as possible to Raven and Murphy. "Bellamy and I will go check it out."

"You're forgetting one problem," one of the men speaking continue. "Dae—"

"The old fool is probably dead!" hisses the other one. "And that moron Theseus isn't around to make me a joke among my people. I'll pave the way for the great Titan. Maybe find someone to attach myself to for some time. I've missed the land where the mortals walk."

Bellamy's eyes widen, and he and Clarke peer into the small chamber from which the voices are coming. She abruptly yanks him back, causing him to fall flat on top of her. He hears her inhale sharply in pain, but doesn't make any noise louder than that. She pushes his back to get him into a sitting position and they scramble to their feet. She promptly puts her hands over his mouth, pulling him out of earshot of those two men before removing her hands.

"Was that—"

"Yes," Clarke says quietly. "The ghost of John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln."

"What are the ghosts doing out of the Underworld?" Bellamy hisses. "We're not even technically in it yet, are we?"

"Not that I know," she answers, swallowing. "This is bad."

Something clicks in Bellamy's head. "The prophecy wasn't talking about Hades."

"What?"

He looks at her before grabbing her arm and pulling her back to where Raven and Murphy are. "The prophecy isn't about Hades," he repeats to them. "It was talking about a ghost king."

"Ghost king?" Murphy asks.

"One of the guys in there mentioned Theseus, son of Zeus," Bellamy murmurs. "He said Theseus turned him into a joke."

"Theseus and the Labyrinth," Murphy breathes. "Bellamy, that was King Minos."

"I know," he replies. "King Minos and John Wilkes Booth are trying to find a way to infiltrate Camp Half-Blood, and Minos is trying to attach himself to a mortal soul."

"Very good," a silky voice says, and they turn around. "I never expected the godlings to be smart, but looks live you've changed over the years." King Minos steps forward, and Bellamy draws his shortsword. Murphy brandishes his spear, and Clarke and Raven take out their knives. "I'm afraid I can't let you walk away with that information, though."

"That's not good," Raven mutters. Behind Minos, a small army of ghosts materializes, all of them looking murderous.

"Got any ideas, Princess?" Bellamy asks Clarke.

"Try stabbing them," she says quietly. "And then run. Really fast."

When the ghosts charge, the four of them do as they're told, before running in the direction of the chamber where Minos had been. But more ghosts approach, and Raven grabs them and tugs them into the chamber. Before the ghosts can come in, however, rocks collapse over the opening in the chamber, trapping them inside.

Unfortunately, there's no other opening, and they're trapped.

"I'm going to—I'm going to pass out," Clarke wheezes, doubling over and putting her hands on her knees. "We're trapped."

"Wonderful," says Murphy. "At least we aren't going to get our souls sucked out by the _king of the dead."_

"They're not dementors, Murphy," Raven sighs. "What now?"

Bellamy walks over to Clarke and puts his hand on her back. "I don't know. We wait for a bit, and then we start digging ourselves out."

"This is stupid," Clarke mutters, sounding out of breath. "We aren't prepared for this."

"We aren't going to die before the prophecy runs its course," he assures her. "We'll be fine—"

"Not you or Murphy!" she yells, straightening. "The prophecy said pretty damn clearly that a child of Ares was going to die. Who's to say that it doesn't apply to us as well?"

He steps back and rubs his eyes. "Clarke..."

"All of you, shut up. Come here," Raven commands, and forgetting their oncoming argument, Clarke and Bellamy walk to where Raven is standing. She reaches out and touches a spot on the wall. "Look."

On the part she touched, a triangle glows. 

"Delta," Clarke says, reaching out to put her fingers on the glowing blue triangle. "D in Greek."

"The prophecy said something about the inventor's key," Murphy says quietly. "And King Minos was there. The only inventor I can think of that's related to Minos is—"

"Daedalus," Clarke finishes. "Son of Athena."

"The Mark of Daedalus is here," Raven concludes. "Why?"

"I don't—remember the story exactly," Bellamy says. "But Daedalus had spent time with Minos. He glances around the chamber, spotting a broken piece of a Greek pillar. "If everything from Greece shifts with Western Civilization, I'd say, judging by the chamber—we're in the ruins of King Minos's palace."

"The ruins of the palace already exist in Greece," Raven protests. 

"So do the ruins of Mount Olympus. It still makes sense," Clarke murmurs, pressing her thumb into the inside of the triangle. "I—"

She stops, because at that moment, the wall seems to slide, showing another, larger room.

"I guess we have to go in there now, right?" Murphy asks. "Jeez, it's like you guys are actually _trying_ to get me killed."

* * *

"How long has it been?" Bellamy asks Clarke.

"Two and a half hours," she whispers. "And we haven't found any exit out of this stupid palace."

Bellamy glances at the nearest wall. Another delta.

A horrible thought occurs to him.

"Clarke, what if we aren't in the palace?" he says suddenly. "All of these corridors lead somewhere, but it didn't always look like a palace." He walks to the door Murphy and Raven are currently trying to pry open. Since he's taller than both of them, he cranes his neck, looking at the top of the door. And sure enough, there's yet another delta symbol. He reaches up to push it, then steps back. It slides, revealing a chamber with three separate tunnels.

"This isn't the palace," Clarke breathes, pushing past him. "Guys—I think—I think we just discovered Daedalus's Labyrinth."

He hears a low growling coming from behind them.

"Guys," he murmurs. "Turn around, very, _very_ slowly."

"I really don't want to," Murphy sighs, but he turns just the same. And in front of them is a giant hellhound. All hellhounds are giant, but this? This was the hellhound _alpha._ Bellamy's seen a few hellhounds on border patrol, but never one as big as this. Bellamy leans forward to charge it, but Raven grabs him.

"Don't," she says softly. "It has armor. Pure Celestial Bronze. It'll kill you before you can figure out a way to kill it."

"Well, _what_ do you suggest, then?" he hisses impatiently. 

"Stairs!" Clarke exclaims. _"RUN! FOLLOW ME!"_

She bolts into the chamber with the three tunnels, going directly into the one in the middle. He can _feel_ the roar of the hellhound behind him, but as Clarke had yelled earlier, the corridor soon gives way to a set of stairs leading up. There's a door at the top, and he sprints just a bit faster, hands outstretched towards the knob—

And the door is locked.

 _"SHIT!"_ Clarke screams. She doesn't usually swear, and the outburst startles Bellamy.

 _"MOVE!"_ Raven orders, shoving Bellamy so hard that he almost topples down the stairs. Down below, the hellhound is trying to push his head into the corridor, causing rock to fall away so that his head can fit. Bellamy estimates that it'll be within demigod-eating distance in about two minutes, tops.

In front of him, Raven's hands burst into fire. Murphy yelps, pressing himself into the wall. Raven melts down the doorknob before taking a bobby pin out of her hair with her still lit hand, though her hair doesn't catch on fire. She fiddles with the lock, and then shoves the door open, revealing miles of desert. They run out of the door, slamming it shut behind them. When Bellamy turns back after about two minutes of running, he sees that the door has disappeared.

"Holy—oh, my _god!"_ Clarke splutters.

"Where the hell are we?" Murphy asks.

"I can't—read the stupid sign," Bellamy says, pointing to a green board a few feet away. "Stupid dyslexia."

"It's P-O-N-H-I-X—" Clarke starts, then swears.

"It's Phoenix, Arizona," Raven clarifies, looking around. "How'd we walk all the way from Manhattan to Phoenix in three hours?"

"Time and space works differently in magical areas," Clarke says grimly. "Come on. I think I see a gas station over that way."

* * *

The guy at the register scowls at them when they walk in. "You kids lost or something?"

"What's the date?" Raven snaps. The dude looks a little weirded out, but he tells them anyway. Bellamy's heart sinks, and they go to the snack isle. 

"We've been away from camp for almost nine days," Clarke breathes. "We're in so much trouble."

"How are we going to get back?" Murphy whispers.

"I can help you with that," a smug voice says. They turn to see a guy who looks like he should be on the cover of Vogue grinning at them, wearing a white t-shirt with a small, simple sun on it. Bellamy puts his hand on the hilt of his concealed sword. "Oh, I would not do that," the dude says. "I really don't need another excuse for Ares to put snakes in my soup." 

Bellamy blinks. "Snakes?"

"Oh, sorry, I probably should've introduced myself," the guy says, chuckling. "I'm Apollo. Nice to meet you."

"Do you really just want to help us out of the good in your heart?" Murphy asks, sighing. "Because we really aren't in the mood to get screwed over by a god right now."

"You guys went out of the world totally unprotected," Apollo says, his expression calm but his tone stern. "I figured it was the least I could do after having the Oracle give you that awful prophecy. Don't ask me what it means, I don't know!" he says warningly at Clarke's expression. 

"Shouldn't you be driving the sun chariot or something?" Bellamy asks.

"It's on _autopilot,"_ Apollo says suavely. _"Damn._ Are all demigods this anxious?"

"Yes," the four of them say in unison.

"That's fair," Apollo sighs. "Hmm, none of you are old enough to drive, right? That's okay. I can drive you to camp. Thank god, er, thank me for autopilot, huh?"

Bellamy glances at Clarke, who shrugs. An affirmation.

"Sure," she says. "Why not?"

* * *

Bellamy would really like to say that he stayed up during the whole car ride, but to be honest, he had passed out as soon as his head hit Clarke's shoulder. When he wakes, it's dark, and out the window, past Clarke's head, he can see Thalia's tree. And campers, lots of them.

"We're here!" Apollo says cheerfully. Clarke jerks her shoulder to get Bellamy's head off of it, and the four of them stumble out of the car. They head towards the tree, but the sight in front of them makes Bellamy's blood freeze in his veins.

"And I was hoping we could rest for a bit," Murphy groans, bringing his spear out of nowhere. "See you guys after the battle."

Bellamy swears and runs to where the campers are under attack by hordes of monsters. The tree looks worse than ever, the bark itself looking grey. Murphy gets into it with a pair of _dracenae,_ or snake-women, and Bellamy runs to where the rest of his siblings are fighting. 

"Clarisse isn't back yet?" he yells to Echo, who flinches in the midst of battling some weird horned creature. 

"What in the name of Hades are you doing here?" she screams. "We thought you were dead!"

"Me, too!" he replies, and he stabs the creature in the throat.

The monster disintegrates. Echo whirls to face him. "We burned your burial shroud!" she continues. Bellamy's eyes widen. "You—"

The ground erupts under her feet, and before Bellamy knows it, something surges out from below it puts something sharp right through Echo's back. He leaps around her and beheads it with one strike, but he feels Echo's body hitting his. He grabs her by the shoulders and hauls her away from the battle. He gets on his knees, draping her body across his thighs. Something sharp protrudes from her heart—a talon, maybe. 

"B—Bellamy," Echo rasps, blood coming out of the corner of her mouth. No amount of nectar or ambrosia was going to save her. Not when the talon had gone straight through her heart. _"Bellamy."_

"You're going to be fine," he lies, his hands trembling. "You're gonna be fine, Echo."

She shakes her head. "Don't—lie," she breathes.

"I'm not," he says. "I'm not lying. You'll make it. You'll probably pass out, but you'll wake up. And you'll go home."

"Roan," she whispers. "I'll—see Roan."

"Yes."

"Good," she murmurs. She doesn't speak again.

Bellamy's crying right now. He glances at the other campers, battling the monsters. But he figures they'll be okay without one son of Ares.

He pulls Echo's body up and drags her to the Big House.

* * *

"Well, well," Tantalus says, looking pleased despite the dead body on the porch. "I had plans for the campers that left without permission. I am so very glad at least half of them showed up."

"Silence," Mr. D says, looking serious for the first time in all the time Bellamy's known him. "What is this?"

"She was killed at the border," Bellamy says. He had felt like he wouldn't be able to string together two words, but as he says this, it's almost like someone is pulling the words out of his throat. He realizes with a jolt that it might be some of Dionysus's power. 

"It is worse than I thought," he says, then looks up at Bellamy, who is still crying. He expects Mr. D to scream at him, to punish him, turn him into a dolphin or something—but he doesn't. His expression is remarkably soft. "Go to your cabin, child. And stay there."

Tantalus opens his mouth to protest, but Dionysus holds up his hand, silencing him. "Go now, Bellamy."

He doesn't realize that Dionysus had said his name right until he's done showering and collapses into bed.

* * *

Clarisse comes back within the next day or so. And so does Percy. And Chiron does, too.

"Hey. Punk."

He stays in bed. He feels like the lousiest, most useless, most cowardly son of Ares ever, but he can't get out of bed.

Not when he got Echo killed.

He feels a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault, dude. It really isn't," Clarisse says, her voice somehow rough yet calming at the same time. 

"I distracted her," he snaps. "If I wasn't talking to her, she'd still be alive."

"You're stretching it," another girl says, and Bellamy recognizes Lexa's voice. "It wasn't your fault. And you should celebrate, Bellamy. The tree is healed. Clarisse brought back the Golden Fleece. She saved the camp."

Bellamy sits up. _Final shroud of deepest red. Child entombed finally free._

"Echo's shroud," he says. "I want to see it."

Surprisingly, they don't object. Clarisse brings him a silken burial shroud, the color dark red.

He frowns. 

_(final shroud of deepest red)_

"Okay," he says, his heart feeling heavy. "Let's go."

* * *

"I was—so sure it was about her," Bellamy breathes, rubbing his forehead. 

"Your quest wasn't for nothing, my boy," Chiron assures him. "You found out about the Labyrinth. I'll be sending Clarisse to investigate it, since that other entrance is near her home."

"I got Echo killed," Bellamy insists.

"You didn't," the centaur counters. "It was prophecy, Bellamy. Not your fault."

He sits in silence for some time.

"There was another line," he says finally. _"Child entombed finally free._ What does that mean?"

"Perhaps—no, it couldn't be," Chiron mutters. "I'm afraid I don't know. But we will. Soon."

* * *

Bellamy's woken in the middle of the night by Lexa shaking his shoulder. "Come on," she hisses. "Something happened at the border."

He leaps out of bed and sprints to the tree, pushing past people to see—Percy? He cradles the body of a girl in his arms, with dark hair. And finally, Bellamy knows. The child entombed within the pine tree. Percy's screaming for someone to help her, but no one moves. Eventually, the girl wakes up. And when Percy asks who she is, Bellamy already knows.

"I am Thalia," the girl says. "Daughter of Zeus."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pov: you watch me sobbing over 7x04 and how bellarke parallels percabeth
> 
> anyways, comment please!!
> 
> in case anyone is confused, here are the ages of some of the campers as of this chapter  
> bellamy—13  
> clarke—13  
> raven—14  
> echo—16  
> octavia—11  
> luke castellan—20  
> clarisse—14/15  
> murphy—14  
> lexa—15  
> malcolm—13  
> will solace—10/11  
> miller—13  
> monty—12


	3. the lost goddess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't really know how percy's quest in ttc ties into bellamy's storyline lmao so have some _character development_

Bellamy had never particularly cared for his birthday. But as far as birthdays go, this one particularly sucks.

It starts with Finn Collins from the Hermes Cabin. Kind of shady, very annoying, and ruining his sleep.

"What in the name of Zeus do you want right now?" Bellamy asks, grabbing his sword before his eyes are even completely open. Finn flinches, but doesn't step back, which takes guts if you've got an Ares kid pointing a weapon at you.

"Chiron asked me to come get you," he says. "Your mother called."

He sits upright. Chiron called him to the Big House, but Bellamy decides that he's gonna blame the kid for waking him. Finn's his age, but whatever.

See the thing is, Bellamy doesn't really have a problem with him. He just thinks he's kind of annoying and clingy and he happens to be totally in love with Clarke. Not that Bellamy minds; he just doesn't like Finn's attitude. In all fairness, it really has _nothing_ to do with Clarke.

When he reaches the Big House, he's greeted by a strange sight. Clarke's asleep on the porch in this grey sweater that's a little too big for her, and her hair is down. Thalia is sitting next to her, looking forlorn.

"What's up with her?" he asks the daughter of Zeus, who just glares at him. Apparently his reputation as a nice Ares kid either isn't doing it for her, or she just doesn't know about that yet. "She's going back home."

He frowns. _"What?"_ Thalia's answer didn't really provide much of a reason as to why Clarke was dead asleep on the porch, but he wasn't just going to let this information slide. "Why?"

"Well, I guess you can ask her when she wakes up," Thalia sighs. _"If_ she wakes up."

She leaves before elaborating, and Bellamy shakes his head. He kneels and puts two fingers on Clarke's neck, feeling a steady pulse. Satisfied with his assessment, he goes back inside. 

"Ah, Bellamy," Chiron says once he comes inside. "I'm afraid I sent Finn with some wrong information."

"What do you mean?"

"Your mother _did_ call and leave a message, wishing you happy birthday, congratulations on fourteen and so on," Chiron explains. "But that's not why I asked you to come here. Please, have a seat."

Reluctantly, Bellamy sits down. 

"It's about your sister," Chiron says carefully. Bellamy's heart sinks, thinking back to his quest a few months ago. He was so sure that he'd be able to get his sister back, to save her from Luke, but he couldn't, and he's been wracked with guilt ever since. Guilt about her, guilt over Echo... "Clarisse has seen her."

"Clarisse saw _my_ sister while she was on her top-secret mission to investigate the Labyrinth?" Bellamy splutters. "H- _how?_ Why? When?"

"In all fairness, your sister sought Clarisse out," Chiron explains. "She wants to set up a meeting under a temporary truce."

"A meeting with us? Camp Half-Blood?"

"Yes."

Bellamy looks up. "Okay, let's meet her."

"Not you, Bellamy," he replies, looking uncomfortable. "She wants to see you but it's best if you don't do this."

"And why is that?" Bellamy snaps. "She's _my_ sister."

"That's precisely why I worry," Chiron replies. "Octavia Blake is now a devoted follower of the Lord of Time. Because she is your sister, I have to assume that she will convince you to leave us. And we cannot let that happen. We have to keep every demigod safe."

He scoffs. "You think _I_ would ever join Kronos?"

"Don't say the name," Chiron warns. "For your sister, yes. I know you. I know you would do anything to keep her safe."

He sighs and puts his face in his hands. "So what? Are you going to go see her? Is she coming here?"

"I can't tell you anything else, Bellamy."

"Then _what_ was the point of bringing me here?" he snaps. 

Chiron says. "I want to at least keep you updated with the whole situation. And unfortunately, that's all I can tell you right now."

He stays silent for a long time. "Why is Clarke asleep on the porch?" he asks finally.

The centaur rubs his forehead. "I suggest you go and start your camp duties for the day, Bellamy." And whether he likes it or not, he's clearly dismissed.

Clarke is still on the porch when he walks out of the Big House, and he considers waking her. But Bellamy's in a bad mood, and he's pretty sure they're going to end up arguing anyway.

Unfortunately, Finn Collins materializes out of nowhere and walks over to Clarke, shaking her awake. Bellamy frowns and grits his teeth, but makes himself walk away. It's really not his problem.

* * *

His attitude doesn't improve over the next few weeks, because Chiron keeps giving him the excuse that Bellamy doesn't need to know anything beyond what the centaur already said. So here is Bellamy, a failure, unable to save his sister, and unable to know anything more about her. 

"What's up with you?" Clarke asks him one day. She hasn't told him when exactly she's going home, but he's secretly glad that she's still here.

"I'm just really worried, that's all."

Clarke tucks her hair behind her ear. She's started wearing it down more often, and it's really doing bad things to Bellamy's attention span. "She'll be okay. She's a tough kid."

"That's the thing, Princess. She's just a kid."

"So are we," replies Clarke. "Look, I'm not gonna pretend I understand. I have the Athena Cabin, but I've never had a legit sibling. So maybe you shouldn't listen to what I say."

"You aren't helping."

She pulls him into a quick hug, and Bellamy's heart shoots into his throat. It's nothing more than friendly and it barely lasts two seconds, but it leaves Bellamy feeling shaky and lightheaded. "Your safety is as important as hers. And I hate to say it, but Chiron has a point."

Bellamy rubs the back of his neck, opening his mouth to reply. However, he catches sight of a group of people coming into camp—he sees Percy, Grover, and small, dark-haired kid. Behind them, there's a group of girls all wearing silvery jackets and carrying bows. They're lead by this beautiful girl probably of Persian or Indian descent, with flowing black hair and a silver circlet on her head. Percy keeps glancing back at her with a slightly irritated expression, but his face softens at the sight of Clarke and Bellamy.

"Hi," he mumbles, hugging Clarke quickly and halfheartedly fist-bumping Bellamy. "Annabeth's gone."

"Gone?" Clarke asks, her face paling. "What the hell do you mean?"

Percy opens his mouth to answer, but then Thalia walks by, and he sighs. "Clarke, I'll tell you later. Or Chiron will." With that, he walks away, looking dejected.

Bellamy turns his head to see Clarke pressing her hands to her eyes. "Why is everyone so bad at giving me straight answers?" she groans, before looking up. "I'm gonna go ask Chiron what happened to Annabeth."

He frowns at her as she goes, wondering why those girls are here. "Hunters of Artemis," Murphy says sullenly, and Bellamy flinches, not having noticed his presence, which is weird. He must really be distracted. "Those are the chicks in the silver jackets."

"Why are they here?" Bellamy asks him.

"Oh, hell if I know."

"I know you do."

Murphy grins. "Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth were called to assist Grover in a mission to retrieve two half-bloods from this boarding school in Maine. Mission was botched, Annabeth was kidnapped. Well, it wasn't totally botched because both of the demigods arrived at camp, but apparently one of them joined the Hunters and now the goddess Artemis went commando or something."

"So same thing as usual, huh?" Bellamy sighs. "I'm going to the arena, if anyone asks."

* * *

The funny thing is, Bellamy doesn't always go to the sword-fighting arena to actually train. Sometimes, he goes there just to sit down and think about things in the familiar comfort of the place. Right now, however, he feels anything but comforted.

Octavia was gone. He'd spent his whole life trying to keep her safe. And now, it's been more than a year since she left him. Since he let her get taken away by Luke.

And he felt like a failure. This past summer's quest was supposed to be about getting his sister to safety. And the worst thing? He's enjoyed himself since then. Camp Half-Blood had become home for him, and his little sister wasn't there. So here he was, living his best life, while Octavia was probably getting brainwashed by Kronos.

He puts his chin in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. He really is the worst older brother to have ever existed. He tried, but he evidently didn't try hard enough.

Octavia was gone.

* * *

Bellamy reaches over to adjust the strap of Clarke's armor as she explains their battle plan for their game of Capture the Flag against the Hunters. He's barely listening, occasionally glancing at Thalia and Percy trying to explain the plan to their own group of campers. He looks back at Clarke, whose hair is tied back. She looks at him, frowning. "We never win against the Hunters."

Under normal circumstances, Bellamy would have vehemently insisted that this match was going to be different, but he found that he didn't really care anymore. "We'll still try," he sighs, tapping the hilt of his sword. Clarke reaches up to flick a curl away from his forehead before putting her helmet on. "We are so going to get our asses whooped."

He snorts, putting his own helmet on. "Without a doubt, Princess."

* * *

He wishes he could say that the campers won, but that would be a blatant lie. The defeat is absolutely humiliating, resulting in a massive fight between Percy and Thalia that's probably going to keep Bellamy shaking water out of his socks for the next few hours. And then the Oracle, that _dead,_ _lifeless_ mummy somehow walks into the forest and gives Zoe Nightshade, the cute girl leading the Hunters, a quest to find the goddess Artemis, because apparently she got kidnapped.

"Is it always like this?" he groans, shaking his hair like a wet dog, making Clarke yelp in surprise and hit his shoulder. 

"Yeah," she says, once she's done wiping droplets of water off of her face. "You've been here _two_ years, dude. You should know that stuff like this happens all the time."

They sit on their favorite hill in camp, not having bothered to go back to their cabins. He looks up to see Zoe approaching, and he swallows. 

"You fought well today," she says to Clarke, her voice vaguely accented. Her black hair has streaks of brown and bronze, and it's almost as distracting as Cl—

_Don't finish that thought._

"So did you," Clarke mutters, somehow managing to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "Just like always, Zoe."

Zoe lets out a small laugh. She really does have a great smile when she doesn't look like she's plotting the murder of everyone in the camp. "Have you considered my offer from our last visit?"

Clarke swallows, glancing sideways at him. He frowns, asking a question with his eyes. 

Bellamy realizes with a dull jolt that, at some point, Zoe had asked Clarke to join the Hunters of Artemis. And for some reason, Bellamy doesn't like that idea at all. 

"The answer is still no," Clarke sighs, looking away from him. He expects Zoe to get angry with Clarke, but she nods, still smiling. "I understand. You are still a capable warrior. I will respect you as such."

She walks away, and despite her politeness earlier, Bellamy can tell that there's something weighing on her, like she's carrying the world on her back.

"I heard she took it pretty hard," Clarke murmurs, playing with the sleeves of her shirt. "When she heard that Artemis was missing in action. Zoe's been alive for a couple thousand years—she's been friends with and has served Artemis for almost that whole time."

"I can't imagine being alive for that long," Bellamy admits. "I'd honestly hate it."

Clarke snorts. "I thought everyone wanted immortality."

He looks at her. "Immortality literally sounds like the worst thing ever, Clarke. Can you imagine living forever, outliving all the people you love and all the people that love you? And eventually having to let go of every single thing you liked?"

She puts her chin in her hands. "That does sound kinda sad."

He observes her, just for a moment. "When are you going home?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Oh. Why?"

Clarke turns to look at him, and her eyes catch him off guard. _Shut up, shut up, shut up! Why are you so ridiculously hormonal? Why do you have to be like every other 14-year-old boy?_ "My stepmom is getting remarried," she sighs. "She wants me to be there for it. And she wants me to be with her for a while. She misses me."

"And do you miss her?" Bellamy inquires. "Because that's equally important."

"Not when it comes to parents, Bell," she says. "Besides, I think it'll be good. I'll miss camp, but maybe I should leave it for a while."

"You won't be safe."

She frowns at him. "Bellamy, tell me—do you think I'm incapable of handling a few monsters?"

His ears get warm. "Not a chance. You're terrifying."

She nods, satisfied. "I'll be okay. And I'll send you Iris-messages. I promise."

Bellamy holds out his pinky, which causes Clarke to snicker. Nevertheless, she links her own pinky with his, giving it a little shake. "Well, at least it's not like making me swear on the River Styx," she says.

"Don't give me any ideas," he replies, getting to his feet and holding out a hand for Clarke to take. She pulls herself up, and they stand there for a few minutes, just staring at each other.

"I'm gonna—uh—I have to—"

"Uh—yeah," Clarke replies, letting go of his hand. "I'll see you around, Bellamy."

She jogs back to the Athena Cabin, and Bellamy walks back to his own, smiling a little.

* * *

"Hey, Iris," Bellamy mumbles. "It's me. Uh, Bellamy Blake. And I really, _really_ need to talk to my sister, Octavia Blake. And hey, I know that I can't provide all the required information—like where she is. But man, I'd probably sell all my limbs to know. Maybe. And it's a sunny day, which is really rare in December here up in the sort of northern East Coast. And I ask that you please show me my sister. Please."

He turns on the hose and holds it up, creating a rainbow, before pulling a drachma out of his pocket and throwing it into the spray.

"Octavia Blake," he says. "Wherever she is."

There's nothing in the rainbow mist for a while, and Bellamy thinks for a second that it won't work.

He tosses another drachma in. "Please," he says again. "Personal favor?"

The mist seems to flicker, before showing an image of his little sister, in a large cavern.

"Mother sure knew how to plan for everything," a boy's voice says. Bellamy tries saying his sister's name, but she can't hear. She stands next to a kid about her age or a bit older, wearing an eyepatch.

_Mother?_

"She took your eye," Octavia mutters, running her hands along the wall.

"Balance," the boy says immediately. "It's how she says hello. Only a matter of time before she takes yours, too."

"She spoke to me, you know," she replies, turning to face him. "Our mom. Told me there were different ways of bringing balance. So I get to keep both my eyes."

The boy comes into clearer view, rolling his eyes. "Whatever," he says. "Octavia, are we ever getting out of here?"

"Luke wouldn't put us in here if he thought we couldn't, Ethan," she says. "It's a test, and we'll pass. Trust me. Besides," she says, glancing towards a part of the cavern that Bellamy can't see. "Mom sent us help."

* * *

"I need to use the Big House phone," Bellamy says, walking up to where Chiron is at the archery range.

He wonders at that moment whether Chiron can read minds, for his expression turns solemn. "You tried to contact your sister, didn't you?"

"I didn't just try. I succeeded."

Chiron sighs. "That's not—that wasn't the right choice."

"She talked about our mother, I think. And there was someone else, someone who acted like our mom was his mom as well. Chiron, I have to ask her."

He frowns, considering something. "Alright. Go call her."

* * *

Aurora picks up on the fourth ring.

"Hi, Mom," Bellamy says. 

_"Hi, honey. Is something wrong?"_

He glances around the room, silent except for his mother breathing softly on the other end and the crackling of the fireplace. "Can I ask you something?"

_"Anything, Bell."_

He swallows. "Did you ever have another kid?"

The line is silent for a second before his mom starts to laugh on the other end.

"What's so funny?" Bellamy asks defensively.

_"Why would you ask that? You and Octavia are my own kids. And if I'd had another child, he or she sure wouldn't be a secret, Bellamy. The kid would be with us, one of your siblings. But it's just you and Octavia."_

He's tempted to push, ask her about this Ethan kid. But at the same time, he's sure that his mom's telling the truth. So what could Octavia possibly mean by their 'mother?'

"Thanks, Ma," Bellamy sighs, feeling vaguely sick. "I'll talk to you later."

* * *

He supposes it could be their godly parent. But no, that wouldn't make sense. Octavia's godly parent had to be a guy, since their mom was Aurora.

Bellamy kind of wishes Clarke was with him. She'd be able to figure it out easily. She's the smartest person he knows. 

He walks to the archery range. "Hey, Chiron?"

The centaur turns. "What is it?"

"I have to go to the meeting with Octavia. I need my answers. And I have to try to help her."

Bellamy expects Chiron to refuse, but to his immense surprise, he nods. "You'll need backup."

He shakes his head. "No, I won't. It has to be us."

"We have no guarantee that she'll come alone."

"She will if she knows it's me. Her brother. She knows that we need to talk, and it has to be between us."

Chiron shakes his head. "How will we inform her that you will be the one to meet her?"

"I can send her an Iris-message. I think I know where she is," Bellamy responds.

"Well, you should get on that then," Chiron sighs.

Bellamy nods to himself before sprinting to the strawberry fields. He grabs the hose, pulling out four drachmas.

"Sorry, Iris," he says, making a rainbow. "But let's do this one last time. And I would like to talk to her, please." He swallows. "Octavia Blake. The Labyrinth."

The rainbow flickers immediately, and Octavia's there—the kid isn't. She's in another dark, cave-like place.

"Octavia," he hisses. "Can you hear me?"

She whirls around, scowling deeply. "You."

Bellamy tries to not be hurt by her tone. "The meeting you want with the camp? I'll be there. Just me."

She scoffs. "You're lying. You'll bring others, I know it."

"Octavia," says Bellamy softly. "I promise it'll be just me if it's just you who comes."

"And why should I believe you?"

"Have I _ever_ broken a promise I made you?"

She frowns. "Why do you care so much about this? Why are you so determined to be on the wrong side of the war? Don't you love me enough to be with me?"

Bellamy sighs. "The day after the Winter Solstice, at the edge of the forest, beyond camp borders. I'll be there."

* * *

"Stop moping," Murphy snaps. "Please. Can you at least like, legitimately train or something?"

"I am not moping," Bellamy replies, idly practicing sword maneuvers. "I'm _considering."_

"Same thing," Murphy sighs. "Everything is going to work out fine, man."

"I'm going in without backup, though," Bellamy says.

"Oh, you idiot. You an Ares kid or what?"

"You say that as if I could ever actually hurt my little sister."

Murphy rolls his eyes. "I bet you have. Siblings fight each other all the time. You're telling me you've never, ever punched each other in the face? Like, not even once?"

"I mean... that's different, you moron. I won't really hurt her."

Murphy kicks Bellamy in the shin as he makes his way for the cabin door. "Like I said, stop moping and do your stuff. I don't feel like being stuck on stable duty."

Bellamy swears and whacks Murphy upside the head as he goes. 

The Solstice couldn't come fast enough.

* * *

"Hey. Blake. Can I ask you a question?"

"Does it involve spear techniques, Collins?" Bellamy replies, trying not to sound too irritated. "Because if not, then maybe now isn't the best time—"

"It's about Clarke."

Bellamy sighs. "Finn. Do I look like an Aphrodite camper to you?"

"You could be, with all the time you spend on your hair every morning," Murphy says, demonstrating a particularly different maneuver.

"Shut up, Murphy," Bellamy mutters. He turns back to the kid in front of him. "Look, man. I get that your siblings over in the Hermes Cabin aren't really going to provide any advice, but I don't see how you'd be asking me, of all people—"

"It's not—I wasn't asking for _relationship_ advice!" Finn splutters, frowning. "I just—you and Clarke are best friends."

"Uhh—"

"Don't even try and deny it, pretty boy."

"Shut up, Murphy," Bellamy says again. "Yes, Clarke and I are friends. Please just get to the point."

"Did she—did she tell you where she went? And how long do you think she'll be away?"

Bellamy frowns. He just assumed that everyone knew that Clarke had gone home. "Uh—well, she's—Clarke's dead."

Murphy drops the spear and presses his hands to his eyes. 

Finn rolls his eyes. "No, she's not. I'm not stupid."

Bellamy opens his mouth, then bites his tongue. "She's away. Secret mission for Chiron. I have no idea when she'll be back."

Finn looks like he wants to argue, but he just frowns and exits the arena before even finishing the training regimen.

"Is that seriously the first thing you came up with?" Murphy snickers. "That she's dead?"

"I panicked!" Bellamy replies indignantly. 

Murphy snickers. "You're hopeless."

* * *

"Bellamy, please just take _one_ person with you—"

"Chiron, I promised her it would just be me," Bellamy says, but he pulls on armor all the same. When he looks up again, he can't help but feel as though Chiron is observing him as if he's already dead.

"We have no guarantee that Octavia will be alone," the centaur says, rubbing his forehead.

"Yes, we do," Bellamy replies softly.

* * *

"You're leaving camp borders," Chiron warns him. Murphy is standing there, looking, for once in his life, completely solemn. "We cannot help you from here."

"I won't need your help," he mutters, putting his sword in the sheath in his hip. He glances back at his friends, and honestly, everyone's been acting so grim about this meeting that even Bellamy believes that he's going to die.

_Peace meeting. Don't freak out, dude._

He wishes Clarke was here.

"I'll see you guys later," he says.

"Yeah," Murphy mutters.

Bellamy turns his back on them, and walks into the woods.

For a while, he thinks that he's been tricked, because Octavia is nowhere in sight. After maybe twenty minutes of walking, he looks back in the direction of camp—nobody will be able to see him from there.

"Bellamy."

He flinches, yanking the sword out, turning to face his little sister. She certainly looks much older, still holding a sword too big for her, and wearing decidedly more armor than him.

"Hey, Octavia," he says carefully. "Don't think the weapons are necessary, right?"

"Are you alone?"

"Yeah."

Octavia scoffs. "I'm still not putting it away."

"That sword is twice as heavy as you."

Octavia opens her mouth to argue, but perhaps she realizes better than to descend into their perpetual, sibling-like arguing. "I'm not here to mess around, Bellamy."

He frowns. "What do you want?"

Her throat bobs. "Leave the camp. Stay with me."

His stomach drops. "What?"

"I want you to choose," she hisses. "You're either with me—or you're my enemy."

How could his baby sister be saying all these things? "It's—really not that simple, O."

"It is!" she whines, childish for a moment. "Why can't you just let them go? _I'm_ your sister. I'm your family, not them!"

"But you're on the wrong side of things," Bellamy says, keeping his voice even. "You know I love you, O. But I can't be on the side where the main goal is to just destroy everything."

"I _hate you!"_ Octavia screams. "You don't even love me! You—you're not even my real brother!"

Bellamy freezes. "Of course I am—"

 _"No!"_ she screams. "You don't know who my godly parent is. Neither you nor anyone at that stupid camp ever bothered to find out. My mother is Nemesis. Goddess of revenge."

"Your mother is _Aurora—"_

"Listen to me!" Octavia snaps. "Do you remember our step-dad?"

"Obviously, I don't, he left when I was _three—"_

"My mother had a kid with him," she says, her voice quieting for a moment. "And she left your mom to take care of me. Raise me like I was your little sister."

His head pounds. Nothing is connecting, nothing is making sense.

"I'm not your sister," Octavia spits. "Maybe that explains why you never cared when you needed to."

"O, don't say that—" he says, walking close to her, because how could she say that, how could she say that when everything Bellamy had done up until their separation had been for her?

"Don't _TOUCH ME!"_ she screams, and something bronze is flying through the air, and pain explodes in Bellamy's side. Octavia has quietly found the chink in his armor, and she's stabbed him.

_(how)_

_(supposed to be a child of Ares, Bellamy)_

_(not your sister)_

_(never cared)_

"Peace—meeting," he chokes out. Octavia's face is swimming above his, and yeah, he's going to die.

"Should've made me swear on the River Styx," she breathes, her voice trembling. He thinks she runs away, disappears, fades into air. He's not sure.

He let his guard down for her, because Octavia would never hurt him, and here he is.

Bellamy lies there, alone, for what seems like hours, before turning his body over, his stomach on the ground. And slowly, carefully, he begins to crawl.

 _Father,_ he thinks. _Help me._

And by some miracle, Bellamy isn't dead by the time he makes his way past the camp border.

There's someone familiar in the distance. "P- _Percy,"_ Bellamy wheezes, his voice almost completely gone. "P—"

Percy turns around, eyes widening as he takes in Bellamy's crumpled form. He runs to him, sliding on his knees as he approaches him. "Guess what?" Bellamy chokes out.

"What in the goddamn _hell_ happened to you?" Percy splutters, pure panic on his face. "Hey—HEY! WE GOT AN INJURED CAMPER HERE!"

"Octavia," Bellamy breathes, and that's where his memory ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wait should i make a social media acc linked to this account


	4. the titan reborn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shits getting kinda exciting lol

_The sky is dark. He can smell barbecue and poison, hear laughter and screaming._

_"Yeah," someone says, and Bellamy sees that he's standing in front of three dudes sitting at a table. "Elysium."_

_"Really?" another says. "I don't think—"_

_"He's not even supposed to be here," the one in the middle says. "The kid ain't dead, Genghis."_

_"No," Genghis says, a sinister expression on his face_ _. "Not yet."_

* * *

"Woah, woah, woah. Dude, relax. You're okay."

Bellamy's eyelids feel like they've been glued together. He opens them with some difficulty, revealing dark hair and sea-green eyes hovering over him. "Please tell me you weren't feeding me," he croaks out.

"Oh, no, I was," says Percy, holding up a spoon of ambrosia. "I keep telling Chiron that feeding people while they're sleeping is a choking hazard, but then again there _is_ the need to keep you alive, so..."

Bellamy takes the spoon from him and takes a bite. His side still hurts like _hell,_ but it's not the earth-shattering pain he'd felt before.

His eyes widen slightly as he remembers everything.

"Percy," he says.

"It was your sister, wasn't it?" Percy replies, looking grim.

He swallows. "Did you find Artemis and Annabeth?"

Maybe it's Bellamy's imagination, but Percy's eyes seem to get watery. "Yeah. Yeah, we found them."

He tries to get out of bed, but Percy exclaims and starts babbling loudly in what is somewhat gibberish, waving his hands and making Bellamy sit down. The gibberish seems to be kind of a bad habit for Percy when he panics. "Just rest, dude. Your sister got you good."

"I can't _lie_ here—"

"Bellamy, do you remember when you found me after Luke almost killed me with the pit scorpion, and I also wanted to get up and do stuff and—"

"Okay, fine, I get your point!" he replies sharply, sinking his head back into the pillow. "She's not my sister."

"What?"

"We don't have the same parents. Like, at all. Her dad was—well we both thought that he was our step-dad. But no, that's Octavia's real father, and her mother is Nemesis."

"Oh. Wow. Uh."

"Yeah."

Percy sighs. "I wish I could help you, man."

Bellamy puts a hand to his eyes. 

"You should go back to sleep," Percy says quietly. "You're not in the clear yet."

* * *

_"Wouldn't everything be easier if we were never lied to?"_

_Bellamy turns around to see a woman who seems kind of timeless, with flowing white clothes and dark brown hair. There are brass scales at her feet, and she holds a shortsword. "Who are you?"_

_The woman smiles softly. It's a sinister, cold smile. "Does it really matter, Bellamy?"_

_He swallows, fists clenched._

_"You've been lucky," she says, setting the sword down. "Too lucky, I'd say. I had to balance things out, though I fear it's not enough." She walks forward, touching Bellamy's hair the way his own mother would. "You're arrogant. Too sure of yourself. Too sure everything will go your way."_

_"That's not true," he protests._

_"Isn't it? You were so sure Octavia wouldn't hurt you."_

_"She's being taken advantage of," Bellamy spits. "She didn't want to—"_

_"You continue to think you're better than the will of fate," she whispers. Her fingers tighten painfully in his hair, but Bellamy's paralyzed. "My daughter understood."_

_Bellamy's blood turns to ice. "You're Nemesis," he says. "Goddess of revenge."_

_"And divine retribution," Nemesis adds, smiling slightly._

_"Retribution for what?" he asks weakly._

_"Why would I tell you, child?" she says, frowning. "You will know on your own."_

_She releases Bellamy's hair, stepping away. "Your life is imbalanced," Nemesis says simply. "But don't worry."_

_Her sword is suddenly in her hand again, and she raises it to Bellamy's neck. "You'll be having the luck you deserve soon."_

_She sinks the blade into his skin, and Bellamy begins to scream—_

* * *

_**august** _

"No, everything's fine, I swear. Where's Bellamy, Chiron?"

"He... you can't see him right now, Clarke."

 _"Chiron._ He's not—"

"No. He's alright. It was a long time ago."

"How long, Chiron?"

Bellamy clears his throat, making Clarke flinch. Chiron glances at him, frowning. "Something wrong?"

"Percy just got to camp with Annabeth. Said something about an _empousa_ attack and uh, almost destroying his high school."

"Seems to be a trend with the poor boy," Chiron replies sadly.

Clarke is currently gazing at Bellamy in disbelief and a touch of anger. In the few months that she's been gone, she's gone from pretty to absolutely beautiful. 

"Hey, Clarke," Bellamy says quietly.

She doesn't answer—instead, she walks forward and grabs Bellamy's arm, pulling him out of the Big House. She drags him all the way to their favorite hill, and she pulls him down into a sitting position. 

"Show me," she orders. Her voice is impassive, but there's some other emotion bubbling beneath.

"The—?"

"Yes."

Swallowing, Bellamy slowly raises the side of his shirt, showing Clarke the large scar left by Octavia's wound. She reaches out to put her hand on it, making Bellamy's heart beat way too fast. "She did this to you?"

He pushes away Clarke's hand, getting to his feet. "I'm fine, Clarke. It happened at the end of last December. It's August now—"

"I don't give a _shit_ about the months, Bellamy," she says. "Your sister tried to murder you."

He swallows.

"Are you still trying to find her?" she asks in disbelief, getting to her feet. "After what she did?"

"Clarke, she's my—"

"She's _not your sister!"_ she exclaims. "Chiron told me who she is!"

"You don't understand the situation, Clarke!"

 _"Why_ are you so desperate? Why do you have this _stupid_ savior complex—"

"It's _not_ a savior complex, Clarke! She's still my sister, regardless of blood. I grew up with her, okay! Why are you _so_ against me going to find her—"

 _"Because I care about you, jackass!"_ Clarke yells. Bellamy pauses, lips parting. "Nemesis is taking the side of the Titans. And I know she's going to hurt you again if you ever find her again. And you might not survive."

"My survival is _not_ as important as hers!" Bellamy spits.

"It is to me," Clarke breathes, and she walks away before he can say anything else.

* * *

The following morning, one of the new trainers at camp, Quintus, announces that the campers will be participating in some new game in the woods, battling monsters that he released earlier. Unfortunately, Bellamy's paired with Clarke, who steadily refuses to talk about anything other than their strategy for the game. She's adjusting her armor when Bellamy finally gathers his courage.

"Did you mean what you said yesterday?" he asks softly. "That you cared about me?"

"I care about all of my friends, Bellamy," she replies. 

_Of course. Why would he be any different?_

"Promise me something," Clarke says quietly.

"Okay."

"Don't go looking for Octavia anymore," she says. "Just enjoy summer this year."

"I can't sit here knowing she's out there."

"I'm not asking you to choose, Bellamy," Clarke murmurs. "I'm just asking you to not worry about it for a couple of months. You haven't had a real moment of peace since she left."

"And what if I can't be at peace while knowing that Octavia's basically evil now?" Bellamy asks.

Clarke exhales softly, looking sad. "I asked you for something, but you're not obligated to do it for me. And if you want to keep trying to save your sister, then I can't stop you." She looks up, trapping him in her gaze. "I don't want you to get hurt, okay? If it weren't for Percy, you'd—you would be dead."

"I can't make any promises," Bellamy says to her.

She nods, looking away, and it's like someone who had been shining a light in his face had suddenly turned it off. "I know. I shouldn't have asked."

"Clarke, wait—"

"I'm serious," she says. "You're right. She _is_ your sister, despite everything. I can't just ask you to forget her." Clarke smiles softly. "What I really meant by that is—I want you to stay safe, no matter what you do."

"I will," he assures her.

"Good," says Clarke. "Let's go kill some monsters."

* * *

When the game ends, Percy and Annabeth are still missing.

Fortunately, they're found under Zeus's Fist, and Percy stubbornly insists that they've only been gone for a few minutes. In reality, they'd been searching for the pair for hours.

Clarisse swallows and glares at the ground.

"What's up?" he asks her that night.

"There's an entrance to the Labyrinth right in camp," she says, lacing her fingers together. Lexa's polishing her balisong, but Bellamy can tell she's listening intently. As is the rest of the Ares Cabin. "Luke and his forces could easily use that to invade."

"That's not good," Murphy mumbles.

"It's like the summer the lightning bolt went missing," Clarisse tells them. "And when the tree was dying." She glances meaningfully at Bellamy. "We have to start war prep again. No breaks, no _if_ s. We've been at war for years, but now it's time to get serious." She glances around the Ares Cabin. "Are we all agreed?"

Everyone murmurs their assent. 

"Good. Blake, I want you to meet with the other senior counselors and start discussing border patrol; we need tighter security. I doubt Jackson will be here, though..."

"We'll handle it," Bellamy says. "But what about you? You're senior counselor. And if it's not going to be you, why me? Lexa's the second oldest—"

"I'm taking point on training the other cabins. Namely the non-combat oriented campers," Lexa says. "Besides, After me, you're the one Clarisse trusts most."

"Wow, thanks," Murphy mumbles.

Bellamy's ears feel warm. Him and Clarisse weren't the best of friends, but he can't help feel a touch of pride. She is, after all, in some sense, his sister. 

More of his sister than Octavia is, he realizes.

"That's an exaggeration," Clarisse mutters, looking a little red herself. "But you're the man for the job. You're basically the only Ares kid that people like."

Bellamy nods, leaning against the wall. 

"Murphy," Clarisse says. "You've got—connections to the Hephaestus Cabin. You work with them on building defenses."

"Just because I'm— _friends_ with one of them doesn't mean the others will listen to me!"

"Friends, my ass," she replies. "Besides, Raven Reyes is Beckendorf's second in command. The cabin will listen to her. And that's all you need." Clarisse looks back at Bellamy. "I don't like it, but we need to work closely with the Athena Cabin. They're smart—all of them are strategic geniuses, basically. So are we, but they'll be a big help."

"Quick question," Murphy says. "What are you going to be doing during all of this?"

Clarisse's expression darkens. "None of your business, balsamic vinaigrette. Just do as I say, okay? Everything's gonna be fine."

Bellamy wishes he believed her.

* * *

Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy's half-brother Tyson have left on their quest by the time Bellamy gets to the training arena the following morning. Clarke is currently fighting one of the Apollo campers, and Bellamy freezes, absolutely mesmerized. He's heard how good of a fighter she is, but he's never seen it until now. It's hard to tell at a first glance, but she's winning. Her opponent is tired, movements getting slightly sloppy and uncoordinated, but Clarke, despite the sweat shining on her cheeks, is still going as if she's just started.

"How long have they been doing this?" Bellamy asks the kid next to her, who happens to be Harper from Aphrodite Cabin.

"Fifteen minutes in six seconds," she says, checking her watch.

 _"Fifteen minutes!"_ Bellamy exclaims. "Clarke doesn't even look tired."

Harper smirks. "Next to Percy, she's the best swordsman—er, swordswoman—in the camp. We have a list."

Bellamy frowns. "Where am I on the list?"

Harper considers this for a moment. "Hell if I know. Probably third or fourth best." She catches sight of his expression. "I hope you aren't thinking of fighting Clarke. She's gonna obliterate you."

Bellamy barely registers this—he's too busy staring at Clarke. Because he's impressed. Why else?

She scoffs. "Forget it. Doubt you can stop staring at her long enough to gather the courage to fight her."

"Shh," Bellamy says, even though Clarke isn't talking. He wants to devote all his attention to the scene in front of him. And Clarke's about to win. Harper rolls her eyes.

In a surprise move, Clarke turns her sword and jabs the hilt into the other kid's stomach, causing him to gag and fall down. He watches Clarke mumbling numbers under her breath before Harper calls it. She drops her weapon and holds her hand out to her opponent. He takes it, looking tired but not angry. Clarke gives him a fist-bump before putting her sword at the edge of the arena, and turning around as she removes her armor. She's wearing a short black tank-top, and the sun from the skylight illuminates the skin between her top and pants and—

"Are you okay?" someone asks. Oh, shit, she's right in front of him.

"Uh-huh," he says. "Uh. I'm—yeah."

She sighs. "Bellamy."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm kind of, uh, sleepy. Yeah."

"Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

There's a strand of golden hair framing her face. Her eyes are like sapphires set into her face—

_Please shut up before you say any of this out loud._

"We need to uh, tighten border patrol," he mumbles. "You're senior counselor while Annabeth is gone, right? We need to meet and reorganize the schedules."

"Yeah," she replies. "Okay. Let's meet tonight in the Big House."

"Mhm."

Clarke smirks at him. "You wanna train?"

Over her shoulder, Harper's eyes widen and she shakes her head.

"Sure," he says, because he's an idiot. It can't be that hard, can it? He's an Ares kid. Combat is his specialty.

"What color do you want your burial shroud?" Harper asks him as he puts on some armor and steps into the arena.

"Shut up, Harper," he mumbles.

She snorts. "On my mark!" she calls. Bellamy's aware he has an audience now. Apparently him and Clarke training together is entertaining to them."

"We're good," Clarke says, adjusting the strap of the armor she had put on again. "That's why they wanna see us."

"I feel flattered," he mutters, holding his shortsword up.

"Go!" Harper yells.

Bellamy takes the opportunity to make the first move, lunging forward, slashing his sword. But Clarke is faster than he anticipated, and she dodges the strike. She raises her sword and tries to cleave downward, but Bellamy blocks it. 

_Hey,_ he thinks. _Maybe this won't be so hard after all._

He proceeds to spend the next ten minutes getting himself cut and bruised, but he's giving as good as he gets. Clarke is panting and spitting out wads of blood due to the amount of times he's kicked her (as far he knows, hand-to-hand combat is also allowed in these training sessions.

Bellamy wishes he could say that his good luck continued, but turns out Clarke is good— _really good._ She's got him face down and eating dirt when they approach the sixteenth minute.

"You did well," she says, after Harper calls it.

"I am going to throw up," he groans.

"If it makes you feel better, I think I'm gonna throw up, too," Clarke says, pulling him up. And she really does look like a mess, cheeks red and face gleaming with sweat, a bead of blood dripping from where Bellamy nicked her face with the tip of his sword.

"That was fun," he says, walking out of the training arena with her. "I also never want to do that again."

She grins. "You scared of me now or something?"

He rolls his eyes. "I was always scared of you, Princess." He isn't lying. He's endured hours of taunts from Murphy purely because he's actually terrified of Clarke Griffin when she's going all badass genius mode. 

Clarke is really pretty.

"See you tonight," he says, before he can say something stupid.

* * *

"It's bad enough that Percy and Annabeth are gone," Katie Gardner from Demeter Cabin says.

"Yeah, but now we have Percy and Annabeth, version 2," Silena Beauregarde from Aphrodite says, tossing her long, dark hair over one shoulder.

"Huh?" Bellamy says, and then looks at Clarke. "Oh. Uh. We're not Percy and Annabeth Two. We're Bellamy and Clarke 1."

Clarke rolls her eyes. "That's not the point. We have to discuss border patrol. There are too many windows where no one is anywhere. But now that it's summer, we have more campers."

"Wait, you want to get the younger ones and the newcomers into the patrol rotation?" Travis Stoll from Hermes asks. "I mean—"

"We need all the help that we can get," Clarke pushes.

"I don't like the idea either, but she does have a point," Bellamy supplies. "Clarisse's investigation of the Labyrinth revealed a direct opening in camp. And Percy and Annabeth are trying to work on that issue, but until it's resolved—and hopefully it is—we have to be on high alert."

"Bellamy should train the younger kids," Beckendorf says, and everyone murmurs their assent. Bellamy's ears go warm, but he maintains his composure. 

"And meanwhile, we should extend shifts."

"Shifts are already two hours long," Lee Fletcher from Apollo says. "It's going to interfere with camp duties if we stretch it."

"Screw camp duties," Bellamy says vehemently, causing everyone to direct all their attention towards him. "We are in danger. Clarisse said it to me herself—we're at war. We have been for some time. So screw our meticulous chores and pacts. Our priority, right now, is to protect this place and everyone inside it. So if one cabin can't take stable duty due to their shifts, then we suck it up and have someone else do it. If we don't do this together, everything is going to fall apart. Not wanting to do another cabin's duties isn't more important than protecting the camp."

Clarke gazes at him, clearly impressed. "If we stretch shifts to three hours, it should cover the windows of no guard. Until we have more campers that can handle themselves at the borders, that is how long we have to stay. Bellamy's right. The only system we can follow now is this one. If there's an issue with camp duties, we step up and volunteer."

"Right," Bellamy says. "Beckendorf, will you be able to rebuild the defenses we built when Thalia's tree was poisoned? We have to put those up by Zeus's Fist."

"Where the entrance to the Labyrinth is located," Travis says, swallowing.

"Yeah," he replies, and everyone in the room simultaneously either shivers or winces. "Do we all agree to make this our priority?"

"No question about it," Katie declares.

"Yeah, we're cool with it," Connor Stoll adds.

"We'll get on building defenses right away," Beckendorf promises, crossing his arms. 

"I'm afraid there's not too much we'll be able to do," Silena sighs, looking slightly ashamed. "But some of us can fight. We'll teach the others how, and get them ready for any attack. Plus, we can help out wherever we can."

"That's going to be good, too, Silena," Beckendorf assures her.

"Don't worry—Lexa Woodley from our cabin is going to be training the non-combat oriented cabins while the rest of Ares Cabin works with the kids."

Lee frowns. "Ares Cabin is going to work with the _kids?"_

"So is Athena Cabin," Clarke assures him. "Half of us, anyway. The other half is working on strategy, along with the Ares kids that aren't training the kids."

"So we're good," Castor from Dionysus Cabin says.

"Yeah," everyone says.

"Good," Bellamy states. "Let's get started. Here's a list of who's on the shift for tonight..."

* * *

The following afternoon, he walks in on a _massive_ fight.

The training arena lies deserted for about thirty minutes a day after their new training schedule, and Bellamy had gone to clear his head. Instead, he'd found Raven, Clarke, and Finn all screaming at each other.

He freezes in the doorway. 

"I told you there was no use in going back!" Finn yells.

"Don't make this about me, Finn!" Clarke roars, absolutely enraged. "You lied to both of us! How long do you think you could hide it?"

"He _had_ the right idea!"

"He was a goddamn _psychopath!"_ Raven screams. "I cannot believe you, Finn! It's bad enough that you were leading both of us on at the same time, but this is another thing completely! You were going to—"

"I wasn't!" Finn protests. "He'd reached out—"

"Do you not _care_ about the camp at all?" Clarke exclaims. _"THIS IS WHAT HE DOES! And you!_ You were going to get us killed! We're lucky we caught you speaking to that son of a—"

"I wasn't _going_ to, Clarke—"

There's so much anger and hatred in that room that Bellamy can practically feel it under his skin, tendrils of a storm. He feels like he should walk away, but there's something about the pure rage and the words being uttered that he has to stay and listen.

"You're a traitor!" Raven yells, lunging towards Finn and grabbing the front of his shirt. "You were going to tell them _everything!"_

She punches him square in the face, breaking his nose. Bellamy's heart is pounding, Raven's anger somehow contagious.

"Raven, don't, leave him for Chiron—" Clarke says, reaching forward to try and pull Raven away, but she turns around and punches the blonde in the jaw. Clarke recoils, her hands twitching as if she's also longing to hurt someone. 

"I'll _KILL YOU!"_ Raven roars, withdrawing to punch Finn again, and again.

Clarke turns, locking eyes with Bellamy. The anger on her face momentarily intensifies, before her eyes widen in shock. "Bellamy, _stop!"_ she yells.

"Stop what?" he asks. "I'm not—"

"Yes, you are!" she yells, running up to him. "Bellamy, you're doing this, now _snap out of it!"_

 _"I'm_ making Raven doing that?" he asks in disbelief.

"Bellamy," Clarke says, her voice shaking with barely controlled fury. "I swear to _Zeus,_ you better stop now."

"I don't know how!" he yells. His heart is beating too fast, and he's also shaking, anger bubbling beneath his fingertips. Clarke releases a yell of frustration before punching Bellamy in the jaw.

Abruptly, the storm that had been brewing in his head evaporates, and Raven pauses, getting off of Finn, whose face is nearly unrecognizable. "Take him to the Big House," Clarke says shakily. "Chiron and Mr. D will deal with him."

"I don't—I don't know how—"

"You're an odikinetic," Clarke breathes as she turns back to him, her voice more even, though the anger hasn't faded from her eyes. "You can manipulate certain emotions."

He scoffs. "No, I can't."

"You just did," she counters. "Sometimes powers don't manifest until years later..."

She trails off, before grabbing Bellamy's shirt. "Don't ever do that again. Understand?"

"I can't control it yet, apparently!" he protests.

"I don't _care,"_ Clarke spits. "Do not ever manipulate my emotions ever again."

She releases his shirt before walking out of the arena.

* * *

Later that evening, Chiron calls Bellamy to the Big House.

_Great. I'm gonna get punished or kicked out for sure._

"Take a seat, Bellamy," Chiron sighs, looking tired. Tentatively, he sits down in the couch across the fireplace. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before," the centaur admits. "Not many demigods have the gift of odikinesis. Clarisse has it, but you—your power is nearly as strong as your father's."

Bellamy swallows. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"No, boy," Chiron says. "You cannot be blamed. You just discovered this power, and you don't know how to control it. But as you've seen, it is—viciously destructive. I suspected the gift was awarded to Clarisse because she was ruthless and violent, but you are a contradiction to that hypothesis."

"What exactly is odikinesis?" Bellamy asks.

"It is is the ability to manipulate feelings and emotions of war such as hate, rage, and fear," he explains. "It also includes being able to calm nerves before battle. A toned-down version of pathokinesis, the ability to manipulate emotion in general."

"I started that fight. Well, made it worse, I mean. Made it physical."

"You did," Chiron confirms. "They were angry. They had discovered Finn communicating with the forces of my father, the Lord of Time. Namely, his older brother."

"Luke."

"Yes. They had been enraged. They hated them. You amplified that and converted it into battle lust."

"Is that why Clarke punched me?" Bellamy asks.

"No," the centaur says. "Clarke was affected by your powers, but she is—incredibly patient. She knew a shock would be the only way to stop you from using your powers, so she punched you."

"I could _feel_ how angry they were," Bellamy admits. "It was like..."

"A physical feeling," Chiron finishes. "A legitimate bank of power. People who possess this power are vastly underestimated."

He puts his face in his hands. "I never meant for this to happen."

"If you're worried about Finn Collins, he deserved what Raven did to him, if I am being completely honest with you," Chiron concedes. "But you do have to be careful. Especially with Clarke. She had a bad run-in with Oizys."

"Who's that?"

"Oizys is the goddess of misery, anxiety, grief, and depression," Chiron explains. "Demigods are never safe outside of camp. In the time that Clarke had spent visiting her ex step-mother, monsters weren't the only thing that attacked her. Some minor gods and goddesses exist to create chaos and violence. Oizys is one of them. She's been very opposed to the idea of having her emotions controlled ever since. Oizys manipulated her into leaving her mother. Not the main reason she left, actually. But one of them."

Bellamy sighs, stewing in his own guilt and shame. "How am I gonna control this?"

"It is not something anyone can help you with, I'm afraid," Chiron says. "You'll have to muster the self-control, keep yourself from even feeling the anger of others."

Bellamy nods, swallowing.

"Now go," the centaur says. "I think you owe Clarke an apology."

* * *

They have their shift at border patrol together, just the two of them, which is the perfect opportunity for Bellamy to apologize.

"Hey, Clarke?" he says, keeping his eyes on the border. "I'm really sorry about what I did earlier."

"You shouldn't be," she sighs. "I know you can't control it. I just—" She looks at him, looking haunted. "It's not the first time someone has manipulated my emotions. I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but—"

"Chiron told me," Bellamy murmurs. "About—about Oizys."

Clarke sighs. "I know that after happening only once, I shouldn't be so afraid of it. But I am." Her throat bobs. "I try to be strong and calm, but the fact that people can still, _literally_ play with my emotions scares me because what it made me do before. Things were finally going well with my mom, Bellamy. But _she—_ she's powerful. And I apparently had so much misery in my heart that it was easy for her to control me, make me get myself into a worse situation. She'd make me feel worse, make me act out almost against my will. And that's why I was so angry when you did that to me. Sure, it wasn't misery, but it was still a way of making me lose control. Of getting violent, going towards doing something I shouldn't have."

"What, like killing Finn?"

She looks at him. "Bellamy, if I hadn't punched you, Raven _would_ have. You don't understand the depth of your power. The ability to manipulate any sort of emotion at all can have _devastating_ consequences."

"I'm going to learn to control it."

"I know. And you will. You're one of the most powerful children of Ares I've ever seen." She clenches her jaw and turns back to the border. "I'd hate to see what happens if you ever decided to join the side of the enemy."

* * *

Percy Jackson is declared dead about a week and a half later.

It happens when Annabeth Chase stumbles into camp, and Bellamy nearly kills her, thinking her an intruder. But she calls out weakly that it's her, and she falls to her knees the moment she makes it past the borders.

"Annabeth," Bellamy says, also dropping to his knees, grabbing her shoulders. "What happened? Where are the others?"

"Percy's dead," she whispers softly. And she doesn't speak again for the rest of the day.

* * *

When they get around burning Percy's burial shroud in the amphitheater, Clarke squeezes Annabeth's hand before she goes up to give her eulogy. The other daughter of Athena truly does look terrible, with red, puffy eyes and messy hair. She says a few words about how Percy was her best friend, but Bellamy knows it was more than that.

He can't believe that Percy's gone. It just—it seems impossible.

"Excuse me," someone says, pushing past him, and Bellamy nearly faints when he realizes who it is. 

"I'm hallucinating," he says to Clarke.

"Me, too."

As it turns out, Percy had not died at the explosion at Mount Saint Helens. And Annabeth, of course, makes a massive scene, screaming and yelling at him, but Bellamy knows that she's glad he's alive.

After the whole fiasco, Bellamy finds him and pulls him into a hug.

"I thought you were really dead," he sighs, releasing the son of Poseidon after a moment.

"Me, too," Percy admits. "Wait. Something seems—is Ares here? 'Cause I really want to punch someone right now for some reason."

Swallowing uncomfortably, Bellamy explains the whole issue with his new power.

"Oh," he says. "That's. Uh. Wow."

"I hate it," Bellamy admits. "Raven Reyes almost killed Finn Collins because of it. He did end up being a traitor, but still. And I'm so scared that I'm going to accidentally end up manipulating other people's emotions."

"That's honestly terrifying," Percy mutters. He looks up. "But you can pull it off, I think. You're pretty calm."

"Sure," Bellamy mumbles. "Too bad it's not about me being calm. And I can't really ask everyone to not be mad around me, can I?" He glances at his friend. "Uh. I think Annabeth wants to talk to you."

All the color drains from Percy's face, but he goes anyway. It leaves Bellamy to wonder what happened to them on their quest.

"They kissed," Clarke mutters, appearing next to him, as if she's read his mind.

"No _way,"_ Bellamy says. "Actually?"

Clarke tilts her head. "Is it actually that hard to believe?"

He snickers. "Not really."

"They're going back into the mortal world to find Grover and Tyson. The Labyrinth again, actually."

"Bet they loved that idea," Bellamy murmurs. He looks at Clarke. "We should get back to training."

She looks back at him. "We are _not_ going to die," Clarke says.

"No," he agrees. "We won't."

* * *

When they aren't training the others, Bellamy and Clarke spar each other. And sure, she's totally destroyed the first time they've fought, but he's actually got a couple of victories under his belt. Other campers keep track of their victories on this chalkboard in the corner of the arena, and so far, Clarke and Bellamy are tied. A downside of them training together? They're nearly dead by the end of it.

"I think you broke my ribs," Clarke mumbles. "I feel like armor should be allowed in purely hand-to-hand combat."

"That would make it so boring," Bellamy counters. "Plus, people would be breaking their hands and feet all the time."

Clarke nods, leaning against him for support. "I hate you."

"Likewise. Now I'm gonna have a cut on my beautiful face."

She pulls away. "Now I understand Murphy's claims that you're actually a child of Aphrodite."

"I'm so good-looking that they decided to make me an honorary member," he says with a snicker.

Clarke elbows him in the gut. "I think you're ugly."

He winces in fake hurt. "That was just _cold,_ Clarke."

"I'm kidding. You look great."

He's tempted to ask her if she really thinks he's attractive, but he decides to keep that to himself.

Yikes. He's a complete goner for Clarke Griffin.

* * *

Battle preparations are still in effect when Percy and Annabeth return with Tyson and Grover. The air feels electric, charged with dread and fear. 

Hours after Percy returns with the others, Camp Half-Blood descends into battle.

Clarke had been there when the army had exploded out of the Labyrinth entrance, and she runs into Bellamy, her face covered in blood. "They're here," she says, and the campers all run for the forest, weapons at the ready.

Here, in the midst of battle, is an infinite bank of emotion—murderous hatred, enraged purpose. The chances of the camp living through the battle start to decrease, and Bellamy finds himself facing a small army of monsters facing him. 

He's going to die.

He raises his blade, as does everyone else behind him. Clarke comes to stand next to him, and hey, if he's going to die, he's okay dying with her. She raises her own weapon, and he's greeted with a cacophony of hissing and rattling and all kinds of horrible monster noises.

"They're afraid of you," he realizes. "I can feel it."

"I do kill a lot of monsters," she admits. "Bellamy."

"They won't back down. They have their orders. But they're _scared..."_

He turns to look at her.

Clarke swallows, her own fear reflected in her eyes. "Do it." She turns back to the campers behind her. "FALL BACK! NOW!" Clarke looks back at him. "Let go, Bellamy. It's okay."

He releases a shaky breath, and the monsters charge.

Except, time seems to slow down for him—he knows it's not actually that way, but everything is, at least, moving at a comprehendible pace. He imagines the fear coursing through the monsters as yet another brewing storm—and he grabs a hold of it, making it bigger and bigger. Like a rising wall of water, the loudest clap of thunder ever heard. Fear has an electric taste, and the monsters freeze. Bellamy's shaking, overwhelmed by the sheer power roiling beneath his skin. The wall rises higher, thunder getting louder. His vision is shrouded in red and black, and through his haze, he sees them begin to drop, one by one. Once every last monster in that group is dead, he sinks to his knees, ears ringing and blood streaming from both of his nostrils.

"That's not what I was expecting," Clarke says, her voice trembling and faint. 

"What were you expecting?" he rasps.

"I thought you were going to make them kill each other."

"Isn't that what I did?"

She helps him up. "You stopped their hearts, Bellamy. Nearly stopped mine, too."

"I'm sorry," he breathes, feeling light-headed. 

"It's fine. Do you think you can do it again?"

"No," he says immediately. "Why, are there more coming?" He turns his head, and confirms that yes, there are _a lot_ more monsters coming."

"Oh my _god,"_ he mumbles.

Suddenly, a terrible scream tears through the trees, piercing Bellamy's brain. Clarke hisses in pain, putting her hands to her ears, and as they watch the monsters retreat back towards the Labyrinth entrance.

"What in the hell was that?" Bellamy splutters.

"A panic," Clarke explains, grabbing his arm. "We have to regroup at camp. The monsters are going to be back."

* * *

The monsters don't come back—the Labyrinth is tied to the life of its creator, and once Daedalus, disguised as their sword-master Quintus, sacrifices himself to save the camp, the maze is destroyed, sealing the monsters out.

"Let me see it," Clarke mumbles, grabbing Bellamy's hand. "You're lucky it's not poisoned. Gonna need some ambrosia and nectar." She looks up. "You were still controlling yourself back there."

"I know," he admits. "I felt you. So I tried to hold back, as much as I could, with you."

"I was wondering how I didn't die after what you did," she murmurs, wiping sweat off of her forehead, smearing it with even more blood. "I was right next to you. And the monsters were still about thirty feet away, and they all died. Disintegrated as soon as their hearts stop."

"I almost lost it," he says quietly. 

"I know that, too," Clarke says. "I was so afraid that I thought I was going to die, too."

Bellamy sighs. "I'm really sorry, Clarke."

"Don't apologize," she insists. "You saved a lot of people back there."

Bellamy swallows. "Thank you."

Clarke leans over and hugs him, swift and warrior-like. "Gonna take a shower. You probably should, too."

"Did you just tell me I smell?"

* * *

On his fifteenth birthday, Bellamy ventures outside of his cabin, finding Clarke waiting by the Big House. "Hi," she says, hugging him as he approaches. He grins, not even bothering to hide it. 

"Didn't think I'd live this long," he admits, his smile shrinking a little. Clarke nods, fiddling with the golden necklace that Annabeth had gotten her for her own birthday a month earlier. "I also didn't think you would remember."

"You remembered mine, dumbass," Clarke says, smiling. "Why wouldn't I remember yours?"

He feels himself blushing, and he reaches up to rub the back of his neck. "I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna go call my mom."

Clarke puts her hand on his shoulder and rises to her toes to kiss his cheek. "Happy Birthday, Bellamy."

She walks away, and he stands there for a bit until he can remember why he came here. He enters the Big House, going to the room that houses the phone. He's reaching for it when a rainbow appears in the corner of the room, flickering.

He turns towards it, gasping when he sees his sister, looking bruised and bloody.

"I don't have time, Bellamy," she splutters. "I need help. He's come back, and he's going to kill me—"

A sword sails into view and goes straight for Bellamy, making him leap backwards. It comes up and then slices down, severing the connection between him and Octavia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bellamy blake is the og trophy boyfriend
> 
> odikinesis is actually a thing in the riordan verse!!! it's hella cool

**Author's Note:**

> ceo of having 86 million works to update
> 
> [here](https://twitter.com/heda_skai) is my twitter


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